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LIBRARY 


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THE 

AMERICAN  SPEAKER ; 
.< 

SELECTION 

OF 

rOrULAR,  PARLIAMENTARY  AND  FORENSIC 
ELOQUENCE,; 

PARTICULARLY  CALCULATED 

FOR  THE  SSmJ^dRIES  /JV  THE  VmTED  STATES,^ 

SECOA'D  EDITIOX, 


PHILADEIPIIIA  : 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY 
ABRAHAM  SMALL. 

181*. 


District  of  Pennsylvania,  to  wit  : 

BE  IT  REMEMBERED,  That  on  the  tlurty-first  day  of  January, 
J.,  c  T  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States 
ii^'  »J  of  America,  A.  D.  1811.  Birch  and  Small,  of  the  said  district, 
have  deposited,  in  this  Office,  the  title  of  a  Book,  the  right  whereof 
they  claim  as  proprietors,  in  the  words  following-,  to  wit:  "  The  Ame- 
rican  Speaker:  a  selection,  of  popular,  parliamentary,  and  forensic 
Filoquence;  pt^rticularly  calculated  for  the  seminaries  in  tlie  United 
States." 

In  conformity  to  the  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  en- 
titled, "  An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the 
copies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of 
such  copies  during  the  times  therein  mentioned."  And  also  to  the  act, 
entitled,  **  An  act  supplementary  to  an  act,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  the 
encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts  and 
books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies  during  the  time 
therein  mentioned,"  and  extending  the  benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of 
dv-.signing,  engraving  and  etching  historical  and  other  prints." 

D.  CALDWELL,  Clerk  of  the  District,  of  Pennsylvania. 


#  / 


PREFACE, 


THE  Compiler  of  the  American  Speaker, 
cannot  venture  to  bring  his  selection -^before  the 
Public,  without  stating  what  inlluenced  his  mind 
to  the  undertaking : — he  believes  that  novelty  only, 
with  all  its  fascinations,  will  not  justify  an  addi- 
tion to  the  numerous  School  Books  already  in  cir- 
culation. 

The  great  importance  of  such  a  work  as  this,  as 
a  Class  Book  in  our  Academies,  is  principally  ma- 
nifested by  the  nature  of  our  Constitutions,  and  in 
their  practical  operations — these  have  opened  all 
the  avenues  that  can  lead  to  eminence  and  honor 
to  every  Citizen, — whatever  therefore,  will  assist 
and  accelerate  them  in  that  distinguished  pursuit, 
must  be  allowed  to  be  of  tbe  first  utility. 

Without  some  proficiency  in  Oratory,  there  seems 
to  be  an  almost  insurmountable  barrier  to  the  pa- 
triotic views  of  an  aspiring  genius — witli  it,  the 
road  to  distinction,  is  obvious,  direct,  and  almost 
certain  : — ^the  many  Legislative  bodies  in  our  Fe- 


iv  PREFACE. 

deral  form  of  government,  tlie  numerous  and  cU* 
versified  character  of  our  Courts,  present  a  suita- 
ble field  for  every  grade,  from  the  unfledged  effort 
of  the  callow  young,  to  the  mature,  eagle-eyed 
flight  in  the  face  of  the  God  of  Day. 

Our  aim  then,  in  making  this  selection,  has  been 
to  aid  those  honorable  efforts  : — to  endeavor  to  fire 
the  minds  of  our  young  men,  by  placing  in  their 
viev/  some  of  the  brightest  examples  of  Genius  : 
to  enable  them  to  catch  the  spirit  of  those  men, 
who, 

^*  JVith  lips ofjire^  have  jjled  their  country^ s  cause/-^ 

The  nainre  of  our  plan  did  not  admit  of  the  intro- 
duction of  many  long  harangues ;  we  have  therefore 
extracted  what  we  thought  the  happiest,  the  most 
eloquent,  and  as  far  as  we  coultl,  the  most  instruc- 
tive parts  of  each  Speech : — we  say  instructive, 
because  we  have  endeavored  to  find  subjects  which 
bear  on  principles  and'facts  necessary  to  be  known 
and  understood  by  xVmericans — that  are  historical- 
ly and  chronologically  useful — that  have  marched, 
as  it  were,  with  us  to  Independence — topics  near 
our  own  time,  and  which  it  may  be  useful,  in  the  ad- 
vance of  our  national  affairs  to  be  familiarly  ac- 
quainted with — all  the  pieces  of  a  political  charac 
ter  in  the  American  Speaker  arc  in  unison  with 


PREFACE.  V 

our  own  system  of  government — the  principles  on 
which  free  Constitutions  are  founded,  and  the  ap- 
plication of  the  rights  and  duties  of  Citizens  un 
dcr  them. 

Although  a  great  part  of  our  Selection  is  of  a 
character  ardent  and  glowing,  we  would  not  be 
suspected  of  denying  the  omnipotency  of  cool  de- 
liberate argument  and  reasoning — but  how  often, 
has  the  most  powerful  eflect,  been  lost  by  a  neglect 
of  the  finest  opportunitiQs  for  appropriate  declama- 
tion?— By  an  happy  appeal  to  the  feelings,  how 
often  has  truth  herself  been  indebted  for  all  the  im- 
pression she  has  made  ? — wc  have  culled  from  tlie. 
greatest  modern  masters  examples  of  these  facts  : 
and  we  believe  no  public  speaker  will  suffer  by  as- 
similating  himself  under  a  judicious  consideration 
of  circumstances,  to  a  Burke,  an  Erskine,  a  Grat- 
tan,  or  a  Curran^ — we  are  fully  convinced  of  one 
great  truth — that  to  impress,  we  must  feel — it  is  this 
that  captivates  the  heart — without  feeling,  the  elec- 
tricity  of  Speech  is  never  emitted — with  the  ioi« 
pression  which  feeling  produces,  a  torrent  arises^ 
that  oftentimes  overwhelms  ungracefVilness  itself--* 
every  thing  that  would  impede  the  current  is  swept 
before  it,  and  the  man  is  altogether  lost  in  thQ 
Orator. 


vi  PREFACE. 

We  have  introduced  the  immortal  Washington 
wherever  we  could :  we  lament  that  more  of  the 
harangues  he  must  have  made  to  his  troops  in  the 
many  trying  situations  in  which  he  was  placed  du- 
ring the  revolutionary  war,  have  not  heen  preserv- 
ed— we  sliould  douhtless  have  found  spirit  and 
animation  suited  to  the  occasion — hut  in  his  most 
preceptive  pieces  the  name  of  Washington, — the 
consciousness  of  his  greatness,  cannot  fail  to  give 
a  glow  to  every  American  hosom,  heyond  what  any 
otiier  production  can  create. 

We  wish  we  could  have  added  to  the  numher  of 
speeches,  of  tlic  Aboriginal  Inhabitants  of  North 
America — they  abound  with  so  many  beauties — 
similies  so  just  and  striking, — that  an  American 

outh  cannot  be  too  proud  of  those  savage  models 

-every  thing  that  illustrates  their  character,  must 
j[;c  interesting.  And  shall  he  not  have  strong  at- 
tachments to  his  country,  where  the  finest  flowers 
?ae  found  in  her  wildernesses  ? — Where  man  in 
his  rude  state,  speaks  with  more  strength  of  elo- 
quence, that  he  has  been  able  to  attain  in  the  most 

olished  and  cultivated  society? 
No  doubt  the  Book  in  its  plan,  is  susceptible  of 

;reat  improvement — if  it  should  pass  through  other 
inlitions,  we  shall  gladly  attend  to  all  suggestions 


PREFACE,  vli 

wliicirmay  lead  to  that  object — we  leave  its  fate  to 
those  who  read,  and  those  who  teach — it  can  hard- 
ly meet  with  great  support  without  the  patronage 
of  the  latter — we  indulge  the  hope  that  if  not 
adopted;,  it  will  not  be  condemned. 

Philadelphia.  Marck^  1814*,^ 


CONTENTS, 


PAGE. 

HAMLET'S  instructions  to  the  players             -         -  1 
Charles  V.  to  his  son  Philip,  on  resigning  to  him  his 

vast  dominions             -             -             -              -  2 

Queen  Elizabeth  to  her  army  encamped  at  Tilbury — 1588  2 
Conclusion  of  the  speech  of  'he  earl  of  Strafford  before 

the  honse  of  Lords  — 1641              -             -             -  3 
Speech  of  Rolla  to  the  Peruvians              -              -  5 
Sir  John  St.  Aubyn  on  ihe  duration  of  Parlia- 
ments                            .             -             -  6 

Sir  William  Wyndham  on  the  same  subject  11 

Sir  Robert  Walpole  in  reply              -             -  12 

^ Sir  Gilbert  Heaihcote  on  the  establishment  of 

Excise  Officers                 -                  -  14 

Mr.  Pultiiey  on  a  standing  army — 1731  15 

Sir  Robert  Walpole  on  a  motion  to  dismiss 

him  from  the  King's  council             -  18 

— Dake   of  Bedfoid  on  a  motion  to  make   the 

descendi'.nts  of  traitors  answeiuble  for  the 

crimes  of  their  ancestors             -  21 

■         General  Wolfe  to  his  army  before  Quebec — 

1759                  -                 -                 -  26 

Lord  Chiitham  on  an  address  to  the  King  27 

I,                  I on  the  seizure  of  Falkland  Is- 
lands                    -                      -  28 

on  an  address  to  the  King — 

1766                      -                       -  34 

__— in  reply  to  Lord  Mansfield — 

1770                  -                      .                  .  27 

. on  the  stute  of  the  nation — 1770  46 

— —  Lord  Mansfield  on  the  deLys  of  Justice  54 

Colonel  Burre  on  American  affairs             -  58 

Do.              in  reply  63 


Gorernor  Pownall  on  the  repeal  of  the  Port 

duties  -  -  -         64 


CONTENTS*  ix 

Speech  of  Lord  Chatham  on  the  bill  for  quartering  sol- 
diers ,       -  -  '65 

— — Mr.  Burke  on  American  taxation  -  66 

— Do.  with  a  sketch 

of  the  character  of  Mr.  Grenville         -  71 

Mr.  Burke  with  a  view  of  Lord  Chathan's  last 

administration,  and  character  of  Charles 
Townshcnd  -  -  -75 

— Mr.  Burke,  extract  from  the  same  -  80 

lo  the  electors  of  Bristol,  on  be- 


ing duly  elected                      -                  -  82^ 

— Mr.  Burke  to  the  electors  of  Bristol,  on  the 

right  of  instructing  representatives  83 

-— Lord  Chatham  on  his  motion  to  remove  the 

troops  from  Boston               -                -  86 

. Lord  C..mden  on  secondinp:  the  motion  91 

Mr  Burke  on  American  affairs — 1775  91 

on  conciliation  with  America  92 

Marquis  of  Granby  on  American  affairs  95 

. Lord  Effingham  on  resigning  his  commission  97 

. Lord  Chatham  on  an  address  to  the  King  99 

Do.              1777             -  102 

on  a  motion  to  adjourn  the  house  103 

— on    his  motion  for  an  amend- 
ment to  the  address                  -                  -  108 

— Lord  Chatham  on  the  employment  of  Indians 

against  America                 -                 -  111 

— Dr.  Shipley,  bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  on  toleration  1 12 

■         Sir  William  Meredith  on  frequent  executions  1 15 

Extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Burke  on  economy  121 

Do,  from  the  same  to  the  electors  of  Bristol           -  124 

Extract  from  the  same  speech  on  imprisonment  for  debt  126 

Do.             Do.              on  penal  statutes  against  Catholics  128 

Further  extract  from  the  same  speech             -             -  131 

Speech  of  William  Pitt  on  economical  reform         -  156 

• Mr.  Fox  on  the   arrival  of  the   news  of  the 

battle  of  Guildford             -                   -  141 

— — William  Pi'j,  sume  lime                 -             -  144 

Mr.  Fox  on  the  sui  render  of  Lord  Cornwallis  145 

Ml'.  Burke  on  the  rii;ht  to  tax  America  146 

of  Mr.  Fox  on  Mr.  Pitt's  motion  for  a  parlia- 
mentary reform                  -                  -  147 
Extract  from  a  speech  of  ^Ir.  Flood                  -  15 1 
Do.             Do.             of  Mr.  Fox  on  Mv.  Gray's  motion 

for  a  reform  in  parliament                 -                 -  15" 


X  CONTENTS. 

Extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Beaufoy  on  Test  laws  165 

Do.  Do.  of  Mr.  Fox  on  the  same  subject  173 

Do.  Do.  on  the  affairs  of  Ireland   177 

Do.  Do.  of  Mr.  Burke  on  Mr.  Fox's  India 

Bill  -  '  '  -  186 

Mr.  Burke's  eulogium  on  Mr.  Fox  -  -  189 

Introduction  to  a  speech  of  Mr.  Fox  on  the  government 

of  India  -  -  -  191 

Extract  of  a  speech  of  Mr.  Burke  on  the  nabob  of  Arcot's 

debts  -  -  -  194 

Do.  Do.  of  Mr.  G  rattan  -  -  196 

Speech  of  Lord  Erskine  on  cruelty  to  animals         -  197 

Extract  of  Mr.  Sheridan's  speech  on  the  trial  of  Warren 

Hastings  -  -  -  215 

JMr.  Burke's  eulogium  on  Mr.  Sheridan's  speech  221 

Extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Grattan  concerning  tifhes  221 
Speech  of  Mr.  Curran  in  the  Irish  parliament  on  Pen- 
sions -  -  -  228 
Extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Erskine  on  the  trial  of 

Mr.  Paine  -  -  -        231 

The  petition  of  the  wife  of  Almas  Ali  Cavvn  to  Warren 

Hastings  -  -  -  232 

Mr.  Erskine  on  the  liberty  of  the  press  -  -    233 

Mr.  Gurran,  on  the  same  subject  on  Mr.  Rowan's  trial      236 
Extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Curran  on  the  trial  of 

Massy  v.  Headfoit  -  -  240 

Conclusion  of  Mr.  Erskine's  address  to  the  jury  on  the 

trial  of  Mr.  Hardy  -  -  -       241 

Mr.  Fox's  eulogium  on  General  Washington  -         247 

Mr.  Sheridan  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Fox  -  249 

Extract  from  Mr.  Curran's  speech  in  the  case  of  Justice 

Johnson  -  -  -  252 

Speech  of  Mr.  Grattan  on  the  Catholic  question  256 

Dr.  Dodd's  address  to  the  court  before  receiving  sen- 
tence of  death  ...  264 
Speech  of  Mr.  Home,  on  the  trial  of  Mr.  Barbot  for  kill- 
ing Mr.  Mills  in  a  duel              ^   -                  -                266 

of  Mr.  Noland  in  the  Virginia  legislature,  on 

a  hill  for  the  suppression  of  duelling  267 

Extract  from  a  speech  of  lord  Stanhope  on  neutral  rights  270 
Do.  Do.  ol  governor  Livingston  to.tiie  coun- 

cil and  assembly  of  New-Jersey  -  -  271 

Oration  of  Robert  Enimett  to  his  judge  before  receiv- 
ing sentence  tf  d'ealh  -  -  274 


CONTENTS.  xi 

Speech  of  Jacob  Henry  in  the  North-Carolina  Legisla- 
ture, on  a  motion  to  expel  him,  he  being  a  Jew         279 
General  Washmgton  to  Congress,  on  accepting  his  com- 
mission -  -  -  282 

— to  his  troops  before  the  battle  of 

Long  Island  -  -  283 

to  his  troops  before  attacking  the 


Hessians  at  Trenton  -  -        284 

general  orders  to  the  army  285 

ciixular  to  the  governors  of  the 


States  -  -  287 

speech  to  the  army  in  consequence 


of  an  anonymous  publication  -  298 

Speech  of  General  Washington  to  the  president  of  Con- 
gress on  resigning  his  commission  302 
Answer  of  the  President  of  Congress  to  the  foregoing      303 
Farewel  address  of  General  Washington  to  the  army        304 
Speech  of  the  mayor  of  Alexandria  to  General  Wash- 
ington, on  his  leaving  home  to  enter  on  the  presi- 
dency                    -                     -                    -  308 
General  Washington's  answer  to  the  foregoing                 309 
President  Washington's  first  speech  to  Congress              310 

speech  to  the  third  Congress — 

1793  -  -  -  314 

farewel  address  to  the  people 


of  the  United  States  318 

General  Marshall's  speech  in  Congress  announcing  the 

death  of  Washington  .  -  -  334 

Extract  from  General  H.  Lee's  funeral  oration  on  Wash- 

iiji<ton's  death  -  -  ,  335 

Inaugural  speech  of  President  Adams  -  340 

' Jefferson  -  -     346 

Madison    .  -  350 

Extract  from  a  speech  pf  Fisher  Ames  on  the  British 

treaty  -  -  -  *      353 

from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Wirt  on  the  trial  of  Aaron 

Burr  -  -  355 
from  an  oration  of  Richard  Rush  Esq.  at  Wash- 
ington July  4th,  1812  -  359 
An  old  Indian  chief  lo  an  English  officer  -  373 
An  Indian  chief  to  English  commissioners  -  374 
Speech  of  Logan,  a  Mingo  chief               »            -  *        374 


xU  CONTENTS. 

Speech  of  an  Indian  chief  to  the  Provincial  Congress  of 

New-England                -  -           375 

, the  chiefs  oif  the  Seneca  nation  to  the  Presi- 

sident  of  the  United  States  -          376 

«« the  same  to  the  same  -                -     380 

< the  same  to  the  same  "                381 

Farmer's  Brother                -  -          382 

. Red  Jacket                     -  -             384 

.^ Red  Jacket             -                     »•  -         388 

. Red  Jacket                     S  :                   590 

^ Red  Jacket            -               s  -            592 


THE 


AMERICAN  SPEAKER. 


Hamlet's  Instructions  to  the,  Players,  Shakespeare. 
SPE  AK  the  speech,  I  pray  you,  as  I  pronounced  it  to 
you,  trippingly  on  the  tongue.  But  if  you  mouth  it,  as 
many  of  our  players  do,  I  had  as  lieve  the  town  crier  had 
spoke  my  lines.  And  do  not  saw  the  air  too  much  with 
your  hand ;  but  use  all  gently ;  for  in  the  very  torrent, 
tempest,  and,  as  I  may  say,  whirlwind  of  your  passion, 
you  must  acquire  and  beget  a  temperance  that  may  give 
it  smoothness.  Oh  !  it  offends  me  to  the  soul,  to  hear  a 
robustious  periwig-pated  fellow  tear  a  passion  to  tatters,  to 
very  rags,  to  split  the  ears  of  the  groundlings  ;  who  (for 
the  most  part)  are  capable  of  nothing,  but  inexplicable 
dumb  shews  and  noise.     Pray  you,  avoid  it. 

Be  not  too  tame  neither  :  but  let  your  own  discretion  be 
your  tutor.  Suit  the  action  to  the  word,  the  word  to  the 
action  ;  with  this  special  observance,  that  you  o'erstep  not 
the  modesty  of  nature  ;  for  any  thing  so  overdone,  is  from 
the  purpose  of  playing;  whose  end  is — to  hold,  as  'twere, 
the  mirror  up  to  nature  ;  to  shew  Virtue  her  own  feature, 
Scorn  her  own  image,  and  the  very  age  and  body  of  the 
Time  his  form  and  pressure.  Now,  this  overdone,  or  come 
tardy  off,  though  it  make  the  unskilful  laugh,  cannot  but 
make  the  judicious  grieve  ;  the  censure  of  one  of  which 
must,  in  your  allowance,  o'erweigh  a  whole  theatre  of 
others.  Oh  !  there  be  players  that  I  have  seen  play,  and 
heard  others  praise,  and  that  highly,  that,  neither  having  the 
accent  of  a  Christian,  nor  the  gait  of  Christian,  Pagan, 
nor  man,  have  so  strutted  and  bellowed,  that  I  have  thought 

B 


2  AMERICAN 

some  of  nature's  journeymen  had  made  them,  and  not  made 
them  well ;  they  imitated  humanity  so  abominably. 

And  let  those  that  play  your  clowns,  speak  no  more  than 
5s  set  down  for  them  j  for  there  be  some  of  them  that  will 
themselves  laugh,  to  set  on  some  quantity  of  barren  spec- 
tators to  laugh  too;  though,  in  the  mean  time,  some  neces- 
sary question  of  the  play  be  then  to  be  considered  : — that's 
villanous,  and  shews  a  most  pitiful  ambition  in  the  fool 
that  uses  it. 

Charles  V,  to  his  Son  Philip  IL  on  resigning  to  him  his 
vast  dominions,  Robertson. 

IF  I  had  left  you  by  my  death,  this  rich  inheritance, 
to  which  I  have  made  such  large  additions,  some  re- 
gard w^ould  have  been  justly  due  to  my  memory  on  that 
account :  but  now,  when  I  voluntarily  resign  to  you  what  I 
might  still  have  retained,  I  may  well  expect  the  warmest 
expressions  of  thanks  on  your  part.  With  these,  however, 
I  dispense  :  and  shall  consider  your  concern  for  the  wel- 
fare of  your  subjects,  and  your  love  of  them,  as  the  best 
snd  most  acceptable  testimony  of  your  gratitude  to  me. 
It  is  in  your  power,  by  a  wise  and  virtuous  administration, 
to  justify  the  extraordinary  proof  which  I  this  day  give  of 
my  paternal  affection  ;  and  to  demonstrate,  that  you  are 
worthy  of  the  confidence  which  I  repose  in  you.  Preserve 
an  inviolable  regard  for  religion  ;  maintain  the  Catholic 
faith  in  its  purity  j  let  the  laws  of  your  country  be  sacred 
in  your  eyes  :  encroach  not  on  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
your  people  :  and,  if  the  time  shall  ever  come,  when  you 
shall  wish  to  enjoy  the  tranquillity  of  private  life,  may  you 
have  a  son  endowed  with  such  qualities,  that  you  can  re- 
sign your  sceptre  to  him  with  as  much  satisfaction  as  I 
give  up  mine  to  you. 

^een  Elizabeth* s  Speech  to  her  Army  encamped  at  Tilbury 
— in  the  expectation  of  the  Landing  of  a  Spanish  force 
by  the  "  Invincible  Armada.''^ — 1588. 

'*  MY  loving  people,  we  have  been  persuaded  by  some 
that  are  careful  of  our  safety,  to  take  heed  how  we  commit 
ourself  to  armed  multitudes  for  fear  of  treachery:  but  I 
assure  you,  I  do  not  desire  to  live  to  distrust  my  faithful 
and  loving  people.  Let  tyrants  fear  ;  I  have  always  so  be- 
haved myself,  that  under  God  I  have  placed  my  chiefest 


SPEAKER.  3 

strength  and  safeguard  In  the  loyal  hearts  and  good- will  of 
my  subjects.  And  therefore  I  am  come  amongst  you  as 
you  see,  at  this  time,  not  for  my  recreation  and  disport,  buc 
being  resolved  in  the  midst  and  heat  of  the  battle  to  live  or 
die  amongst  you  all,  to  lay  down  for  my  God,  and  for  my 
kingdom,  and  for  my  people,  my  honour,  and  my  blood, 
even  in  the  dust.  I  know  I  have  the  body  but  of  a  weak 
and  feeble  woman,  but  I  have  the  heart  and  stomach  of  a 
king,  and  of  a  king  of  England  too  ;  and  think  foul  scorn, 
that  Parma,  or  Sp.un,  or  any  prince  in  Europe,  should  dare 
to  invade  the  borders  of  my  realm  :  to  which,  rather  than 
any  dishonor  should  grow  by  me,  I  myself  will  take  up 
arms,  I  myself  will  be  your  general,  judge,  and  rewarder 
of  every  one  of  your  virtues  in  the  field.  I  know  already 
for  your  forwardness,  you  have  deserved  rewards  and 
crowns  ;  and  we  do  assure  you  in  the  word  of  a  prince,  they 
shall  be  duly  paid  you.  In  the  mean  time,  my  lieutenant 
general  shall  be  in  my  stead,  than  whom  never  prince  com- 
manded a  more  noble  or  worthy  subject ;  not  doubting  but 
by  your  obedience  to  my  general,  by  your  concord  in  the 
camp,  and  your  valour  in  the  field,  we  shall  shortly  have  a 
famous  victory  over  those  enemies  of  my  God,  of  my  king- 
doms, and  of  my  people." 

Conclusion  of  the  Speech  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford^  before  the 
House  of  Lords ^  on  his  Trials  1641. 
My  Lords, — It  is  hard  to  be  questioned  upon  a  law 
which  cannot  be  shewn.  Where  hath  this  fire  lain  hid  so 
many  hundred  years,  without  smoke  to  discover  it,  till  it 
thus  bursts  forth  to  consume  me  and  my  children  ? 

That  punishment  should  precede  promulgation  of  a  law, 
to  be  punished  by  a  law  subsequent  to  the  fact,  is  extreme 
hard.  What  man  can  be  safe,  if  this  be  admitted  ? 

My  lords,  it  is  hard  in  another  respect,  that  there  should 
be  no  token  set  by  which  we  should  know  this  offence  ;  no 
admonition  by  which  we  should  avoid  it.  If  a  man  pass 
the  Thames  in  a  boat,  and  split  himself  upon  an  anchor, 
and  no  buoy  be  floating  to  discover  it,  he  who  owneth  the 
anchor  shall  make  satisfaction  ;  but  if  a  buoy  be  set  there, 
every  man  passeth  upon  his  own  peril.  Now,  where  is  the 
mark,  where  is  the  token  upon  this  crime,  to  declare  it  to  be 
high  treason  ? 


4  AMERICAN 

My  lords,  be  pleased  to  give  that  regard  to  the  peeiage 
of  England,  as  never  to  expose  yourselves  to  such  moot 
points,  such  constructive  interpretations  of  law  ;  if  there 
must  be  a  trial  of  wits,  let  the  subject  matter  be  of  some- 
what else  than  the  lives  and  honours  of  peers. 

It  will  be  wisdom  for  yourselves,  for  your  posterity,  and 
for  the  whole  kingdom,  to  cast  into  the  fire  these  bloudy 
and  mysterious  volumes  of  constructive  and  arbitrary  trea- 
son, as  the  primitive  christians  did  their  books  of  curious 
arts,  and  betake  yourselves  to  the  plain  letter  of  the  law  and 
statute,  that  telleth  us  what  is,  and  what  is  not  treason, 
without  being  ambitious  to  be  more  learned  in  the  art  of 
killing  than  our  forefathers. 

It  is  now  full  two  hundred  and  forty  years  since  any 
man  was  touched  for  this  alleged  crime,  to  this  height,  be- 
fore myself.  Let  us  not  awaken  these  sleeping  lions  to  our 
destruction,  by  taking  up  a  few  musty  records  that  have  lain 
by  the  walls  so  many  ages,  forgotten  or  neglected. 

May  your  lordships  please  not  to  add  this  to  my  other 
misfortunes  ;  let  not  a  precedent  be  derived  from  me  so  dis- 
advantageous as  this  will  be,  in  its  consequence,  to  the 
whole  kingdom.  Do  not,  through  me^ wound  the  interest  of 
the  commonwealth  j  and  howsoever  these  gentlemen  say, 
they  speak  for  the  commonwealth  ;  yet,  in  this  particular, 
I  indeed  speak  for  it,  and  shew  the  inconvenience  and  mis- 
chiefs that  will  fall  upon  it;  for,  as  it  is  said  in  the  statute  1 
Henry  IV.  no  one  will  know  what  to  do  or  say,  for  fear  of 
such  penalties. 

Do  not  put,  my  lords,  such  difficulties  upon  ministers  of 
state,  that  men  of  wisdom,  of  honour,  and  of  fortune,  may 
DOt  with  cheerfulness  and  safety  be  employed  for  the  public. 
If  you  weigh  and  measure  them  by  grains  and  scruples,  the 
public  affairs  of  the  kingdom  will  lie  waste  ;  no  man  will 
meddle  with  them  who  hath  any  thing  to  lose. 

My  lords,  I  have  troubled  you  longer  than  I  should  have 
done,  were  it  not  for  the  interest  of  those  dear  pledges  a 
saint  in  heaven  hath  left  me. 

[At  this  word  he  stopped  awhile,  letting  h\l  some  tears, 
to  her  memory  ;  then  he  went  on] — 

What  I  forfeit  mj'self  is  nothing  ;  but  that  my  indiscre- 
tion should  extend  to  my  posterity,  woundeth  me  to  the  ve- 
ry soul  -' 


SPEAKER.  5 

You  will  pardon  my  infirmity.  Something  I  should  have 
added,  but  am  not  able  ;  therefore  let  it  pass. 

Now,  my  lords,  for  myself,  I  have  been  by  the  blessing 
of  Almighty  God,  taught,  that  the  afflictions  of  this  pres-nt 
life  are  not  to  be  compared  to  the  eternal  weight  of  glory 
which  shall  be  revealed  hereafter. 

And  so,  my  lords,  even  so,  with  all  tranquillity  of  mind, 
I  freely  submit  myself  to  your  judgment,  and  whether  that 
judgment  be  of  life  or  death,  tc  Deiun  laudamus. 

The  Speech  of  Rolla  to  the  Peruvians^  from  the  Tra^edij 
of  Pizarro,  Kotzebue, 

MY  brave  associates,  partners  of  my  toil,  my  feelings 
and  my  fame  !  Can  Rolla's  words  add  vigour  to  the  virtu- 
ous energies  which  inspire  your  hearts  ?  No,  you  have 
judged  as  I  have,  the  foulness  of  the  crafty  plea  by  \\tliich 
these  bold  invaders  would  delude  you  ;  your  generous  spi- 
rit has  compared  as  mine  has,  the  motives,  which  in  a  war 
like  this,  can  animate  their  minds,  and  ours,  'i'hey,  by  a 
strange  frenzy  driven,  fight  for  power,  for  plunder,  and  cx^- 
tended  rule:  we,  for  our  country,  our  altars,  andour  homes* 
They  follow  an  adventurer  whom  they  fear ;  and  obey  a 
power  which  they  hate  ;  we  serve  a  monarch  whom  we 
love,  a  God  whom  we  adore.  Whene'er  they  move  in, 
anger,  desolation  tracks  their  progress  !  Vv'here"*er  they 
pause  in  amity,  affliction  mourns  their  friendship  !  They 
boast,  they  come  but  to  improve  our  state,  enlarge  our 
thoughts,  and  free  us  from  the  yoke  of  error  !  Yes,  they 
will  give  enlightened  freedom  to  our  mind,  who  are  them- 
selves the  slaves  of  pass'on,  avarice  and  pride.  They  of- 
fer us  their  protection  ,  Yes,  such  protection  as  vultures 
give  to  lambs,  covering  and  devouring  them  !  They  call  on 
us  to  barter  all  the  good  we  have  inherited  and  proved,  for 
the  desperate  chance  of  something  better  which  they  pro- 
mise. Be  our  plain  answer  this:  The  throne  we  honor  is 
the  people's  choice  ;  the  laws  we  reverence  are  our  brave 
father's  legacy ;  the  faith  we  follow  teaches  us  to  live  in 
bonds  of  charity  with  all  mankind,  and  die  with  hope  of 
bliss  beyond  the  grave.  Tell  your  invaders  this,  and  tell 
them  too,  we  seek  no  change ;  and,  least  of  all,  such  change 
as  they  would  bring  us. 

B  2 


3  AMERICAN 

77ie  Speech  of  Sir  John  St,  Aubyn  on  seconding  Mr, 
Bromley's  motion  to  repeal  the  Septennial  Law — hij  which 
the  duration  of  the  English  Parliament  had  been  extend- 
ed to  seven  years — 1 734. 

*'  Mr.  Speaker — The  honorable  gentleman,  who  made 
you  this  motion,  has  supported  the  necessity  of  it  by  so 
many  strong  and  forcible  arguments,  that  there  is  hardly 
any  thing  new  to  be  offered.  I  am  very  sensible  there- 
fore of  the  disadvantage  I  must  lie  under,  in  attempting 
to  speyk  after  him  ;  and  I  should  content  myself  with 
barely  seconding  him,  if  the  subject  matter  of  this  debate 
was  not  of  such  great  importance,  that  I  should  be  asham- 
ed to  return  to  my  Electors,  without  endeavouring,  in  the 
best  manner  I  am  able,  to  declare  publicly  the  reasons 
which  induced  me  to  give  my  most  ready  assent  to  the 
question. 

"  'Tis  evident  from  what  has  been  said,  that  the  people 
have  an  unquestionable  right  to  frequent  new  parliaments 
by  ancient  usage  ;  and  that  this  usage  has  been  confirm- 
ed by  several  laws,  which  have  been  progressively  made 
by  our  senators,  as  often  as  they  found  it  necessary  to  in- 
,sist  on  this  essential  privilege. 

*'  Parliaments  were  generally  annual,  but  never  continued 
longer  than  three  years,  till  the  remarkable  reign  of  Henry 
Vlil.  He  was  a  prince  of  unruly  appetites,  and  of  an 
arbitrary  will :  he  was  impatient  of  every  restraint :  the 
laws  of  God  and  man  fell  equally  a  sacrifice  as  they  stood 
in  the  way  of  his  avarice,  or  disappointed  his  ambition  :  he 
therefore  introduced  long  parliaments,  because  he  very 
well  knev/  that  they  Vi^ould  become  the  proper  instruments 
of  both  ;  and  what  a  slavish  obedience  they  paid  to  all  his 
measures  is  sufficiently  known. 

"  If  we  come  to  ;he  reign  of  King  Charles  I.  we 
must  acknowledge  him  to  be  a  prince  of  a  contrary  tem- 
per: he  had  certainly  an  innate  love  for  religion  and  vir- 
tue. But  here  lay  the  misfortune — he  was  led  away  from 
his  natural  disposition  by  sycophants  and  flatterers  :  they 
advised  him  to  neglect  the  calling  of  frequent  parhaments ; 
and  therefore,  by  not  taking  the  constant  sense  of  his 
people  in  what  be  did,  he  was  worked  up  into  so  high  a 


SPEAKER.  i 

notion  of  prerogative,  that  the  Commons  (in  order  to  re- 
strain it)  obtained  that  independent  fatal  power,  which  at 
last  unhappily  brought  him  to  his  most  tragical  end,  and 
at  the  same  time  subverted  the  whole  constitution.  And 
I  hope  we  shall  learn  this  lesson  from  it,  never  to  com- 
pliment the  crown  with  any  new  or  extravagant  powers, 
nor  to  deny  the  people  those  rights,  which  by  ancient 
usage  they  are  entitled  to  ;  but  to  preserve  that  just  and 
equal  balance,  from  which  they  will  both  derive  mutual 
security,  and  which,  if  duly  observed,  will  render  our  con- 
stitution the  envy  and  admiration  of  the  world. 

"  King  Charles  II.  naturally  took  a  surfeit  of  parlia- 
ments in  his  father's  time,  and  was  therefore  extremely 
desirous  to  lay  them  aside.  But  this  was  a  scheme  im- 
practicable. However,  in  effect  he  did  so  ;  for  he  obtained 
a  parliament,  which,  by  its  long  duration,  like  an  army  of 
veterans,  became  so  exactly  disciplined  to  his  own  mea- 
sures, that  they  knew  no  other  command  but  from  that 
person  who  gave  them  their  pay. 

"  This  was  a  safe  and  most  ingenious  way  of  enslaving 
a  nation.  It  was  very  well  known  that  arbitrary  power, 
if  it  was  open  and  avowed,  would  never  prevail  here. 
The  people  were  therefore  amused  with  the  specious 
forms  of  their  ancient  constitution  :  it  existed,  indeed,  in 
their  fancy ;  but,  like  a  mere  phantom,  had  no  substance 
nor  reality  in  it;  for  the  power,  the  authority,  and  the 
dignity  of  parliaments  were  wholly  lost.  This  was  that 
remarkable  parliament  which  so  justly  obtained  the  oppro- 
brious name  of  the  Pension  Parliament  ;  and  was  the 
model,  from  which,  I  believe,  some  later  parliaments  have 
been  actually  copied. 

"  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the  people  made  a 
fresh  claim  of  their  ancient  privileges;  and  as  they  had  so 
lately  experienced  the  misfortune  of  long  and  servile  Par- 
liaments, it  was  tiKu  declared  that  they  should  be  held 
frequently.  But  it  seems  their  full  meaning  was  not  un- 
derstood by  this  declaration :  and  therefore,  as  in  every 
new  settlement  the  intention  of  all  parties  should  be  spe- 
cifically manifested  ;  the  Parliament  never  ceased  strug- 
gling v/ith  the  crown,  till  the  triennial  law  was  obtained : 
the  preamble  of  it  is  extremely  full  and  strong  ;  and  in 
the  bodv  of  the  bill  vou  will  find  the  word  declared  before 


S  AMERICAN 

enacted;  by  which  I  apprehend,  that  though  this  law  did 
not  immediately  take  place  at  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, it  was  certainly  intended  as  declaratory  of  their  first 
meaning :  and  therefore  stands  a  part  of  that  original 
contract,  under  which  the  constitution  was  then  settled. 
His  Majesty's  title  to  the  Crown  is  primarily  derived  from 
that  contract ;  and,  if,  upon  a  review,  there  shall  appear 
to  be  any  deviations  from  it,  we  ought  to  treat  them  as  so 
many  injuries  done  to  that  title. — And  I  dare  say,  that 
this  House,  which  has  gone  through  so  long  a  series  of 
services  to  his  Majesty,  will  at  last  be  willing  to  revert  to 
those  original  stated  measures  of  government,  to  renew, 
and  strengthen  that  tide.  But,  Sir,  I  think  the  manner 
in  which  the  septennial  law  was  first  introduced,  is  a  very 
strong  reason  why  it  should  be  repealed.  People  in  their 
fears  have  very  often  recourse  to  desperate  expedients, 
which,  if  not  cancelled  in  season,  will  themselves  prove 
fatal  to  that  constitution,  which  they  were  meant  to  se- 
cure. Such  is  the  nature  of  the  septennial  law ;  it  was 
intended  only  as  a  preservative  against  a  temporary  incon- 
venience :  the  inconvenience  is  removed,  but.  the  mis- 
chievous effects  still  continue  :  for  it  not  only  altered  the 
constitution  of  Parliament ;  but  it  extended  that  same 
Parliament  beyond  its'  natural  duration  :  and  therefore 
carries  this  unjust  implication  with  it,  that  you  may  at 
any  time  usurp  the  most  indubitable,  the  most  essential 
privilege  of  the  people — I  mean  that  of  choosing  their  own 
representatives. — A  precedent  of  such  a  dangerous  conse- 
quence, of  so  fatal  a  tendency,  that  I  think  it  would  be  a 
reproach  to  our  statute  book  if  thiit  law  were  any  longer 
to  subsist  which  might  record  it  to  posterity. 

"  This  is  a  season  of  virtue  and  public  spirit.  Let  us 
take  advantage  of  it,  to  repeal  those  laws  which  infringe 
our  liberties,  and  introduce  such,  as  may  restore  the  vigor 
of  our  ancient  constitution. 

"  Human  nature  is  so  very  corrupt,  that  all  obUgations 
lose  their  force  unless  they  are  frequently  renewed. — 
Long  Parliaments  give  the  minister  an  opportunity  of 
getting  acquaintance  with  members,  of  practising  his  se- 
veral arts  to  win  them  into  his  schemes — This  must  be  the 
work  of  time — Corruption  is  of  so  base  a  nature,  that  at 
first  sight  it  is  extremely  shocking — Hardly  any  one  has 


SPEAKER.  9 

submitted  to  it  all  at  once — His  disposition  must  be  pre- 
viously understood — The  particular  bait  must  be  found 
out,  with  which  he  is  to  be  allured ;  and,  after  all,  it  is 
not  without  many  struggles  that  he  surrenders  his  virtue. 
— Indeed  there  are  some,  who  will  at  once  plunge  them- 
selves into  any  base  actions  :  but  the  generality  of  man- 
kind are  of  a  more  cautious  nature,  and  will  proceed  only 
by  leisurable  degress.  One  or  two  perhaps  have  deserted 
their  colours  the  first  campaign:  some  have  done  it  a  se- 
cond— But  a  great  many,  who  have  not  that  eager  dispo- 
sition to  vice,  will  v.  ait  a  third — For  this  reason,  short 
Parliaments  have  been  less  corrupt  than  long  ones :  they 
are  observed,  like  streams  of  water,  always  to  grow  more 
impure,  the  greater  distance  they  run  from  the  fountain 
head. 

"  I  am  aware  it  may  be  said,  that  frequent  new  Parlia- 
ments will  produce  frequent  new  expenses  :  but  I  think 
quite  the  contrary  :  I  am  really  of  opinion,  that  it  will  be 
a  proper  remedy  against  the  evil  of  bribery  at  elections ; 
especially  as  you  have  provided  so  wholesome  a  law  to  co- 
operate upon  these  occasions.  Bribery  at  elections  whence 
did  it  arise  ?  not  from  country  gentlemen,  for  they  are  sure 
of  being  chosen  without  it :  it  was,  Sir,  the  invention  of 
wicked  and  corrupt  ministers,  who  have  from  time  to  time 
led  weak  princes  into  such  destructive  measures,  that  they 
did  not  dare  to  rely  upon  the  natural  representation  of  the 
people.  Long  Parliaments,  Sir,  first  introduced  bribery  ; 
because  they  were  worth  purchasing  at  any  rate.  Country 
gentlemen,  who  have  only  their  private  fortunes  to  rely 
upon,  and  have  no  mercenary  ends  to  serve,  are  unable  to 
oppose  it,  especially  if  at  any  time,  the  public  treasure 
shall  be  unfaithfully  squandered  away  to  corrupt  their  bo- 
roughs. Country  gentlemen,  indeed,  may  make  some 
weak  efforts  :  but  as  they  generally  f>rove  unsuccessful,  and 
the  time  of  a  fresh  struggle  is  at  so  great  a  distance,  they 
at  last*grow  faint  in  the  dispute — give  up  -Lheir  country 
for  lost,  and  retire  in  despair.  Despair  naturally  pro- 
duces ind.olence,  and  that  is  the  proper  disposition  for 
slavery.  Ministers  ot"  State  understand  this  very  well,  and 
are  therefore  unwilling  to  awaken  the  nation  out  of  its 
lethargy  by  frequent  elections.  They  know  that  the  spirit 
of  liberty,  like  every  other  virtue  of  the  mind,  is  to  be  kept 


10  AMERICAN 

alive  only  by  constant  action  :  that  it  is  impossible  to  en- 
slave this  nation  while  it  is  perpetually  upon  its  guard. 
JLft  country  gentlemen,  then,  by  having  frequent  oppor- 
tunities of  exerting  themselves,  be  kept  warm  and  active 
in  their  contention  for  the  public  good  :  this  will  raise  that 
zeiil,  and  spirit,  which,  will  at  last  get  the  better  of  those 
undue  influences,  by  which  the  officers  of  the  crown, 
though  unknown  to  several  boroughs,  have  been  able  to 
supplant  country  gentlemen  of  great  characters,  and  fortune, 
who  live  in  their  neighbourhood.  I  do  not  say  this  upon 
idle  speculation  only.  I  live  in  a  country  where  it  is  too 
well  known :  and  I  appeal  to  many  gentlemen  m  the  House, 
to  more  out  of  it,  (and  who  are  so  for  this  Vvfry  reason)  for 
the  truth  of  my  assertion. — Sir,  it  is  a  sore  which  has  long 
been  eating  into  the  most  vital  part  of  our  constitution  : 
and  I  hope  the  time  will  come,  when  you  will  probe  it  to 
the  bottom.  For  if  a  Minister  should  ever  gain  a  corrupt 
familiarity  v;ith  our  boroughs  :  if  he  should  keep  a  register  . 
of  them  in  his  closet,  and  by  sending  down  his  treasury 
mandates,  should  procure  a  spurious  representation  of  the 
people,  the  offspring  of  his  corruption,  who  will  be  at  all 
times  ready  to  reconcile  and  justify  the  most  contradictory 
measures  of  his  administration :  and  even  to  vote  every 
crude  indigested  dream  of  their  patron  into  a  law  :  if  the 
maintenance  of  his  power  should  become  the  sole  object 
of  their  attention,  and  they  should  be  guilty  of  the  most 
violent  breach  of  parliamentary  trust,  by  giving  the  Kin^ 
a  discretionary  power  of  taxing  the  people  without  limita- 
tion, or  control :  the  last  fatal  compliment  they  can  pay  to 
the  crown  :  if  this  should  ever  be  the  unhappy  condition 
of  this  nation :  the  people  indeed  may  complain  :  but  the 
doors  of  that  place,  where  their  complaints  should  be  heard 
will  for  ever  be  shut  against  them.  Our  disease,  I  fear, 
is  of  a  complicated  nature  :  and  I  think  that  this  motion 
is  wisely  intended  to  remove  the  first  and  principal  disor- 
der. Give  the  people  their  ancient  right  of  frequent  ricw 
elections :  that  will  restore  the  decayed  authority  of  Par- 
liaments, and  will  put  our  constitution  into  a  natural  con- 
dition of  working  oat  her  own  cure. 

"  Sir,  upon  the  whole,  I  am  of  opinion,  that  I  cannot 
express  a  greater  zeal  for  his  Majesty,  for  the  liberties  of 
the  people,  or  the  honour  and  dignity  of  this  House,  than. 


SPEAKER.  U 

by  seconding  the  motion  which  the  honourable  gentleman 
has  made  you." 

Extract  from  Sir  William  Wyndham''s  Speech  in  the  same 
debat?. 

"  I  have  been  told,  Sir,  that  no  faith  is  to  be  given  to 
prophecies :  therefore  I  shall  not  pretend  to  prophesy : 
but  I  may  suppose  a  case,  which,  though  it  has  not  yet 
happened,  may  possibly  happen.  Let  us  then  suppose  a 
man  of  mean  fortune,  and  obscure  origin,  abandoned  to 
ail  notions  of  virtue,  and  honor,  and  pursuing  no  object 
but  his  own  aggrandizement,  raised  by  the  caprice  of  for- 
tune to  the  station  of  first  minister :  let  us  suppose  him 
palpably  deficient  in  the  knowledge  of  the  interests  of  his 
country :  and  employing  in  all  transactions  with  foreign 
powers,  men  still  more  ignorant  than  himself:  let  us  sup- 
pose the  honor  of  the  nation  tarnished  :  her  political  con- 
sequence lost:  her  commerce  insulted:  her  merchants 
plundered  :  her  seamen  perishing  in  the  depths  of  dun- 
geons, and  all  these  circumstances  palliated  or  overlooked 
lest  his  administration  should  be  endangered :  suppose 
him  possessed  of  immense  wealth,  the  spoils  of  an  impo- 
verished nation  :  and  suppose  this  wealth  employed  to 
purchase  seats  in  the  national  senate  for  his  confidential 
friends  and  favorites.  In  such  a  parliament  suppose  all 
attempts  to  enquire  into  his  conduct  constantly  over-ruled 
by  a  corrupt  majority,  who  are  rewarded  for  their  treach- 
ery to  the  public  by  a  profuse  distribution  of  pensions, 
posts,  and  places  under  the  Minister  :  Let  us  sujDpose  this 
Minister  insolently  domineering  over  all  men  of  sense, 
figure,  and  fortune  in  the  nation  ;  and  having  no  virtuous 
principle  of  his  own,  ridiculing  it  in  others,  and  endea- 
vouring to  destroy  or  contaminate  it  in  all:  With  such  a 
Minister,  and  such  a  Parliament,  let  us  suppose  a  Prince 
upon  the  throne,  uninformed,  and  unacquainted  with  the 
interests,  or  inclinations  of  his  people,  weak,  capricious, 
and  actuated  at  once  by  the  passions  of  ambition,  and 
avarice.  Should  such  a  case  ever  occur,  could  any  greater 
curse  happen  to  a  nation,  than  such  a  Prince,  advised  by 
such  a  Minister,  and  that  Minister  supported  by  such  a 
Parliament  ?  The  existence  of  such  a  Prince,  and  such  a 
Minister  no  human  laws  may  indeed  be  adequate  to  pre- 


12  AMERICAN 

vent :  but  the  existence  of  such  a  Parliament  may  and 
ought  to  be  prevented  ;  and  the  repeal  of  the  law  in  ques- 
tion I  conceive  to  be  a  most  obvious,  necessary,  and  in- 
dispensable  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  that  pur- 
pose." 

Extract  from  Sir  Robert  Walpole's  Speech  in  reply  to  Sir 
William  Wyjidham, 

"  Sir — I  do  assure  you,  I  did  not  intend  to  have  trou- 
bled you  in  this  debate  ;  but  such  incidents  now  generally 
happen  towards  the  end  of  our  debates,  nothing  at  all  re- 
lating to  the  subject,  and  gentlemen  make  such  supposi- 
tions, meaning  some  person,  or  perhaps  as  they  say,  no 
person  now  existing^  and  talk  so  much  of  wicked  ministers, 
domineering  ministers,  ministers  plumingthemselves  in  de- 
fiances, which  terms  and  the  like  have  been  so  much  of 
late  made  use  of  in  this  House,  that  if  they  really  mean 
nobody  either  in  the  House,  or  out  of  it,  yet  it  must  be  sup- 
posed, that  they  at  least  mean  to  call  upon  some  gentleman 
in  this  House  to  make  them  a  replv,  and  therefore  I  hope, 
I  may  be  allowed  to  draw  a  picture  in  my  turn — and  I  may 
likewise  say,  that  I  do  not  mean  to  give  a  description  of 
any  person  now  in  being. — When  gentlemen  talk  of  minis- 
ters abandoned  to  all  sense  of  virtue,  or  honor,  other  gen- 
tlemen may,  I  am  sure,  with  equal  justice  and,  I  think, 
more  justly,  speak  of  anti-ministers  and  mock-patriots,  who 
never  had  either  virtue  or  honor,  but  in  the  whole  course 
of  their  opposition  are  actuated  only  by  motives  of  envy, 
and  of  resentment;  against  those  who  may  have  disappoint- 
ed them  in  thtir  views,  or  may  not  perhaps  have  complied 
with  all  their  desires.  But  now,  Sir,  let  me  too  suppose, 
and  the  House  b-ing  cleared,  I  am  sure  no  person  that  hears 
me  can  come  within  the  description  of  the  person,  I  am 
to  suppose — let  us  suppose  in  this,  or  some  other  unfor- 
tunate country,  an  anti-minister,  who  thinks  himself  a 
person  of  so  great,  and  extensive  parts,  and  of  so  many 
eminent  qualifications,  that  he  looks  upon  himself  as  the 
only  person  in  the  kingdom  capable  to  conduct  the  public 
affairs  of  the  nation,  and  therefore  christening  every  other 
gentleman,  who  has  the  honor  to  be  employed  in  the 
ad. ministration,  by  the  name  of  blunderer  :  suppose  this 
fine  gentleman  lucky  enough  to  have  gained  over  to  his 


SPEAKER.  13 

party  some  persons  really  of  fine  parts— of  ancient  fami- 
lies— and  of  great  fortunes,  and  others  of  desperate  views, 
arising  from  disappointed  and  malicious  hearts  :  all  these 
gentlemen,  with  respect  to  their  political  behaviour,  mov- 
ed by  him,  and  by  him  solely  :  all  they  say  either  in  pri- 
vate, or  in  public,  being  only  a  repetition  of  the  words  he 
has  put  into  their  mouths  ;  and  a  spitting  out  of  that  venom 
which  he  has  infused  into  them:  and  yet  we  may  suppose 
this  leader  not  really  liked  by  any,  even  of  those  who  so 
blindly  follow  him,  and  hated  by  all  the  rest  of  mankind : 
We'll  suppose  this  anti-minister  to  be  in  a  country  where 
he  really  ought  not  to  be,  and  where  he  could  not  have 
been  but  by  an  effect  of  too  much  goodness,  and  mercy : 
yet  endeavouring  with  all  his  might  and  with  all  his  art 
to  destroy  the  fountain  from  whence  that  mercy  flowed  : 
in  that  country  suppose  him  continually  contracting  friend- 
ships, and  familiarities  with  the  ambassadors  of  those 
Princes,  who  at  the  time  happen  to  be  most  at  enmity 
with  his  own.  And  if  at  any  time  it  should  happen  to  be 
for  the  interest  of  any  of  those  foreign  ministers  to  have 
a  secret  divulged  to  them,  which  might  be  highly  preju- 
dicial to  his  native  country — as  well  as  to  all  its  friends : 
suppose  this  foreign  minister  applying  to  him,  and  he 
answering  him,  Til  get  it  you,  tell  me,  bat  what  you  wanti 
I'll  endeavour  to  procure  it  for  yoa.  Upon  this  he  puts 
a  speech  or  two  in  the  mouth  of  some  of  his  creatures,  or 
some  of  his  new  converts:  what  he  wants  is  moved  for  in 
Parliament;  and  when  so  very  reasonable  a  request  as  this 
is  refused,  suppose  him  and  his  creatures  and  tools,  by  his 
advice,  spreading  alarm  over  the  whole  nation,  and  crying 
out.  Gentlemen,  our  country  is  at  present  involved  in 
many  dangerous  difficulties,  all  which  we  would  have  ex- 
tricated you  from,  but  a  wicked  minister,  and  a  corrupt 
majority,  refused  us  the  proper  materials  ;  and  upon  this 
scandalous  victory,  this  minister  became  so  insolent  as  to 
plume  himself  in  defiances.  Let  us  farther  suppose  this 
anti- minister  ti  have  travelled,  and  at  every  court  where 
he  was,  thinking  himself  the  greatest  Minister,  and  mak- 
ing It  his  trade  to  betray  the  secrets  of  every  court  where 
he  had  before  been ;  void  of  all  faith  or  honor,  and  be- 
traying every  master  he  had  ever  served.  Sir,  I  could 
carry  my  suppositions  a  great  deal  farther  j   and  I  may 

C 


14  AMERICAN 

say,  I  mean  no  person  now  in  being :  but  if  we  can  sup- 
pose such  a  one,  can  there  be  imagined  a  greater  disgrace 
to  human  nature  than  such  a  wretch  as  this?" 

Sir  Gilbert  Heathcote^  in  the  British  House  of  Com7nonSj 
on  the  establishnent  oj  Excise  Officers^  in  1732. 

Sir, — OTLER  gentltmen  have  already  fully  explain- 
ed and  set  lorth  the  great  inconveniences  which  must  be 
brought  on  the  trade  of  this  nation,  by  the  scheme  now  pro- 
post  a  to  us ;  those  have  bt  en  made  very  apparent,  and  from 
them  arises  a  very  strong  objection  against  what  is  now  pro- 
posed .  but  the  grei  test  objection  arises  from  the  danger  to 
which  this  scht  me  will  most  certainly  expose  the  liberties 
of  f  iir  country ;  these  liberties,  for  which  cur  ancestors 
hi  ve  so  often  ventured  their  lives  and  fortunes ;  those 
liberties  which  have  cost  this  nation  so  much  blood  and 
treasure,  seem  already  to  be  greatly  retrenched.  I  am 
sorry  to  say  it,  but  what  is  now  in  dispute,  seems  to  m^ 
to  be  the  last  branch  of  liberty  we  have  to  contend  for ; 
wt  have  already  established  a  standing  arm; ,  and  have 
made  it  in  a  mnrncr,  a  part  of  our  constitution  ;  we 
have  alread)  subjected  great  numbers  of  the  people  of 
this  nation  to  the  arbitrary  laws  of  excise  ;  and  this 
sch<  m.e  is  so  wide  a  step  towards  subjecting  all  the  rest 
of  tht  people  oi  Engliind  to  those  arbitrary  laws,  that  it 
will  be  impossible  for  us  to  recover,  or  prevent  the  fatal 
consequences  of  such  a  scheme. 

We  are  told  that  his  majesty  is  a  good  and  a  wise 
prince  :  we  all  believe  him  to  be  so;  but  I  hope  no  man 
will  pretend  to  draw  any  argument  from  thence  for  our 
surrendering  those  liberties  and  privileges,  which  have 
been  handccl  down  to  us  by  our  ancestors.  We  have  in- 
deed, nothing  to  fear  from  his  present  majesty  ;  he  never 
will  make  a  bad  use  of  that  power  which  we  have  put 
into  his  hands  ;  but  if  we  once  grant  to  the  crown  too 
great  an  extent  of  power,  we  cannot  recal  that  grant  when 
we  have  a  mind  ;  and  though  his  majesty  should  never 
make  a  bad  use  of  it,  some  of  his  successors  may  ;  the 
being  governed  by  a  wise  and  good  king,  does  not  make 
the  people  a  free  people  ;  the  Romans  were  as  great 
slaves  under  the  few  good  emperors  they  had  to  reign 
over  them  as  they  were  under  the  most  cruel  of  their  ty- 


SPEAKER.  15 

rants.  After  the  people  have  once  given  up  theu'  liber- 
ties, their  governors  have  all  the  same  power  of  oppress- 
ing them,  though  they  may  not  perhaps  all  make  the  same 
wicked  use  of  the  power  lodged  in  their  hands  ;  but  a 
slave  that  has  the  good  fortune  to  meet  ■  ith  a  good  na- 
tured  and  humane  master,  is  no  less  a  slave  than  he  that 
meets  with  a  cruel  and  barhiroas  one.  Our  liberties  are 
too  valuable,  and  have  been  purchased  at  too  high  a  price, 
to  be  sported  with,  or  wantonly  given  up  even  to  the  b-st  of 
kings:  we  have  before  now  had  some  good,  some  wise 
and  gracious  sovereigns  to  reign  over  us,  but  we  find, 
that  under  th^^m  our  ancestors  were  as  jealous  of  their 
liberties  as  they  were  under  the  worst  of  our  kings.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  we  have  stilf  the  same  value"  for  our  liber- 
ties :  if  we  have  we  certainly  shall  use  all  peaceable  me- 
thods to  preserve  and  secure  them  :  and  if  such  methods 
should  prove  ineffectual,  I  hope  there  is  no  Englishman 
but  has  spirit  enough  to  use  those  methods  for  the  pre- 
servation of  our  liberties,  wHich  were  used  for  our  ances- 
tors for  the  defence  of  theirs,  and  for  transmitting  them 
down  to  us  in  that  glorious  condition  in  which  we  found 
them.  There  are  some  still  alive  who  bravely  ventured 
their  lives  and  fortunes  in  defence  of  the  liberties  of  their 
country  ;  there  are  many,  whose  fathers  were  t  robarked 
in  the  same  glorious  cause  ;  let  it  never  be  said,  that  the 
sons  of  such  men  wantonly  gave  up  those  liberties  for 
which  their  fathers  had  risqued  so  much,  and  that  for  the 
poor  pretence  of  suppressing  a  few  frauds  in  the  collect- 
ing of  the  public  revenues,  which  might  easily  have  been 
suppressed  without  entering  into  any  such  dangerous 
measures.  This  is  all  I  shall  trouble  you  with  at  pre- 
sent ;  but  so  much  I  thought  it  was  incumbent  upon  me 
to  say,  in  order  that  I  might  enter  my  protest  against  the 
question  now  before  us. 

Mr.   Pulteneifs  Speech  on  the  motion  for  reducing  the 
Army. — 1731. 

«  Sir, — WE  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  parlia- 
mentary armies,  and  about  an  army  continued  trom  year 
to  year ;  I  have  always  been.  Sir,  and  always  shalf  be. 
against  a  standing  army  of  any  kind  :  to  me  it  is  a  terrible 
thing,  whether  under  "that  of  parliamentary  or  any  other 


16  AMERICAN 

designation  ;  a  standing  army  is  still  a  standing  army  what- 
ever name  it  be  called  by  ;  they  are  a  body  of  men  dis- 
tinct from  the  body  of  people  ;  they  are  governed  by  differ- 
ent laws,  ond  blind  obedience,  and  an  entire  submission  to 
the  orders  of  theircommT^ndingofRct^r,istheironly  principle. 
The  rations  around  us,  Sir,  are  already  enslaved,  and  have 
been  enslaved  by  those  very  means;  by  means  of  their 
standing  armies  they  have  every  one  lost  their  liberties; 
it  is  indeed  impossible  that  the  liberties  of  the  people  can 
be  preserved  in  any  country  where  a  numerous  standing" 
army  is  kept  up.  Shail  we  then  take  any  of  our  mea- 
sures from  the  examples  of  our  neighbours?  No,  Sir,  on 
the  contrary,  from  their  misfortunes  we  ought  to  learn  to 
avoid  those  rocks  upon  which  tlrey  have  split. 

"  It  signifies  nothing  to  tell  me,  that  our  army  is  com- 
manded by  such  gentlemen  as  cannot  be  supposed  to  join 
in  any  measures  for  enslaving  their  country:  it  may  be 
so  ;  I  hope  it  is  so ;  I  have  a  very  good  opinion  of  many 
gentlemen  now  in  the  army  ;  I  believe  they  would  not 
join  in  any  such  measures  ;  but  their  lives  are  uncertain, 
nor  can  we  be  sure  how  long  they  may  be  continued  in 
command  ;  they  may  be  all  dismissed  in  a  moment,  and 
proper  tools  of  power  put  in  their  room.  Besides,  Sir,  we 
know  the  passions  of  men,  we  know  how  dangerous  it  is 
to  trust  the  best  of  men  with  too  much  power.  Where 
was  there  a  braver  army  than  that  under  Julius  Csesar? 
Wher  was  there  ever  an  army  that  had  served  their 
couuiry  more  faithfully  ?  That  army  was  commanded  ge- 
nerally by  the  best  citizens  of  Rome,  by  men  of  great  for- 
tune and  figure  in  their  country  :  yet  that  army  enslaved 
their  country.  The  affections  of  the  soldiers  towards  their 
country,  the  honor  and  integrity  of  the  under  officers,  are 
T-ci  to  be  depended  on  ;  by  the  military  law,  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  is  so  quick,  and  the  punishment  so  se- 
vere, that  neither  officer  nor  soldier  dares  offer  to  dispute 
the  orders  of  his  supreme  commander;  he  must  not  con- 
sult his  own  inclinations  :  if  an  officer  were  commanded 
to  pull  his  own  father  out  of  this  house,  he  must  do  it ;  he 
dares  not  disobey  ;  immedii*.te  death  would  be  the  sure 
coi  sequence  of  ihe  least  grumbling.  And  if  an  officer 
were  sent  into  the  court  of  requests,  accompanied  by  a 
body  ot  musketeers  with  screwed  bayonets,  and  with  or- 


SPEAKER.  ir 

ders  to  tell  us  what  we  ought  to  do,  and  how  we  were  to 
vote,  I  know  what  would  be  the  duty  of  this  house  ;  I 
know  it  would  be  our  duty  to  order  the  officer  to  be  taken 
and  hanged  up  at  the  door  of  the  lobby :  but.  Sir,  I  doubt 
much  if  such  a  spirit  could  be  found  in  the  house,  or  in 
any  house  of  Commons  that  will  ever  be  in  England. 

"  Sir,  I  talk  not  of  imaginary  things;  I  talk  of  what  has 
happened  to  an  English  house  of  Commons,  and  from  au 
English  army ;  not  only  from  an  English  army,  but  an  army 
that  was  i  aised  by  that  very  house  of  Commons,  an  army 
that  was  paid  by  them,  and  an  arm};  that  was  commanded 
by  generals  appointed  by  them.  Therefore  do  not  let  us 
vainly  imagine,  that  an  army  raised  and  maintained  by 
authority  of  Parliament,  will  always  be  submissive  tc 
them:  if  an  army  be  so  numerous  as  to  have  it  in  theii 
power  to  over-awe  the  Parliament,  they  will  be  submis 
sive  as  long  as  the  Parliament  does  nothing  to  disoblige 
their  favourite  general :  but  when  that  case  happens,  I  am 
afraid  that  in  place  of  the  Parliament's  dismissing  the  ar 
my,  the  army  will  dismiss  the  Parliament,  as  they  havt- 
done  heretofore.  Nor  does  the  legality  or  illegality  of 
that  Parliament,  or  of  that  ?.rmy,  alter  the  case ;  for  v/ith 
respect  to  that  army,  and  according  to  their  way  of  think- 
ing, the  Parliament  dismissed  by  them  was  a  legal  Parlia 
ment ;  they  Were  an  army  raised  and  maintained  accord  - 
ing  to  law,  and  at  first  they  were  raised,  as  they  imagined, 
for  the  preservation  of  those  liberties  which  they  after- 
wards destroyed. 

"  It  has  been  urged,  Sir,  that  whoeve/  is  for  the  Pro- 
testant succession  must  be  for  continuing  the  army  :  fur 
that  very  reason,  Sir,  I  am  against  continuing  the  army. 
I  know  that  neither  the  Protestant  succession  in  his  Ma- 
jesty's most  illustrious  house,  nor  any  succession,  can 
ever  be  safe  as  long  as  there  is  a  standing  army  in  the 
country.  Armies,  Sir,  have  no  regard  to  hereditary 
succession.  The  first  two  Caesars  at  Rome  did  pretty  well, 
and  found  means  to  keep  their  armies  in  tolerable  subjec- 
tion, because  the  generals  and  officers  were  all  their  own 
creatures.  But  how  did  it  fare  with  their  successors  ? 
Was  not  every  one  of  them  named  by  the  army,  without 
any  regard  to  hereditary  right,  or  to  any  right  ?  A  cobler, 
a  gardener,  or  any  man-who  happened  to  raise  himself  in 

C  2 


18  AMERICAN 

the  army,  or  could  gain  their  afFectiorvs,  was  made  empe- 
ror of  the  world  :  was  not  e\  ery  succeeding  emperor  rais- 
ed to  the  throne,  or  tumbled  headlong  into  the  dust,  ac- 
cord ng  to  the  mere  whim,  ©r  mad  frenzy  of  the  soldiers? 
""  We  ;  re  told  this  army  is  desired  to  be  continued  but 
for  (  nt-  year  longer,  or  for  a  limited  term  of  years.  How 
absurd  is  this  distinction  ?  Is  there  any  army  in  the  world 
continued  for  any  term  of  years  ?  Does  the  most  abso- 
lute monarch  tell  his  army,  that  he  is  to  continue  them 
for  any  number  of.years,  or  any  number  of  months?  How 
long  have  we  already  continued  our  army  from  year  to 
year?  And  if  it  thus  continues,  wherein  will  it  differ 
from  the  standing  armies  of  those  countries  which  have 
already  submitted  their  necks  to  the  yoke  ?  We  are  now 
come  to  the  Rubicon  ;  our  army  is  now  to  be  reduced,  or 
it  never  will  ;  from  his  Majesty^s  own  mouth  we  are  as- 
sured of  a  profound  tranquillity  abroad,  we  know  there  is 
one  at  home  ;  if  this  is  not  a  proper  time,  if  these  circum- 
stances do  not  afford;us  a  safe  opportunity  for  reducing  at 
least  a  part  of  our  regular  forces,  we  never  can  expect  to 
see  any  reduction  ;  and  this  nation,  already  over-burdened 
with  debts  and  taxes,  must  be  loaded  with  the  heavy 
charge  of  perpetually  supporting  a  numerous  standing  ar- 
my ;  and  remain  for  ever  exposed  to  the  danger  of  havmg 
its  liberties  and  privileges  trampled  upon  by  any  future 
King  or  Ministry,  who  shall  take  it  in  their  heads  to  do 
so,  and  shall  take  a  proper  care  to  model  the  army  for 
that  purpose. 

The  Exardivm  to  Sir  Robert  Walpole'^s  Speech  on  the  7no- 
tion  for  {dismissing"  him  from  his  Majesty^ s  Councily 
1740.  , 

"Mr.  Speaker^ — IT  has  been  observed  by  several 
gentlemen,  in  vindication  of  this  motion,  that  if  it  should 
be  carried,  neither  my  life,^iberty,  or  estate  will  be  affect- 
ed. But  do  the  honorable  gentlemen  consider  my  cha* 
racter  and  reputation  as  of  no  moment  t  Is  it  no  imputation 
to  be  arraigned  before  this  house,  in  which  I  have  sat  for- 
ty Vf  ars,  and  to  have  my  name  transmitted  to  posterity 
"with  disp:race  and  infamy?  I  will  not  conceal  my  senti- 
ments, that  to  be  named  in  parliament  as  a  subject  of  in- 
quiry, is  to  me  a  matter  of  great  concern  j  but  I  have  the 


SPEAKER.  1^ 

satisfaction  at  the  same  time  to  reflect,  that  the  impres- 
sion to  be  made  depends  upon  the  consistency  of  the 
charge  and  the  motives  of  the  prosecutors.  Had  the 
charge  been  reduced  to  specific  allegations,  I  should  have 
felt  myself  called  upon  a  specific  defence.  Had  I  served 
^  weak  or  wicked  master  and  implicitly  obeyed  his  dic- 
tates, obedience  to  his  commands  must  have  been  my  only 
justification.  But  as  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  serve 
a  master  who  wants  no  bad  ministers,  and  would  have 
hearkened  to  none,  my  defence  must  rest  on  my  own 
conduct.  The  consciousness  of  innocence  is  also  suffi- 
cient support  against  my  present  prosecutors.  A  further 
justification  is  also  derived  from  a  consideration  of  the 
views  and  abilities  of  the  prosecutors.  Had  I  been  guil- 
ty of  great  enormities,  they  want  neither  zeal  and  inclina- 
tion to  bring  them  forward,  nor  ability  to  place  them  in 
the  most  prominent  point  of  view.  But  as  I  am  consci- 
ous of  no  crime,  my  own  experience  convinces  me,  that 
none  can  be  justly  imputed.  I  must  therefore  ask  the 
gentlemen,  from  whence  does  this  attack  proceed?  From 
the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  parties  combined 
against  me,  who  may  be  divided  into  three  classes,  the 
boys,  the  riper  patriots,  and  the  tories.  The  tories  I  can 
easily  forgive,  they  have  unwillingly  come  into  the  mea- 
sure, and  they  do  me  honor  in  thinkmg  it  necessary  to 
remove  me,  as  their  only  obstacle.  What  is  the  infer- 
ence to  be  drawn  from  these  premises  ?  that  demerit  with 
them  ought  to  be  considered  as  merit  with  others.  But 
my  great  and  principle  crime  is  my  long  continuance  in 
office,  or,  in  other  words,  the  long  exclusion  of  those  who 
now  complain  against  me.  This  is  the  heinous  oflfence 
which  exceeds  all  others.  I  keep  from  them  the  posses- 
sion of  that  power,  those  honors  and  those  emoluments, 
to  which  they  so  ardently  and  pertinaciously  aspire.  I 
will  not  attempt  to  deny  the  reasonableness  and  necessity 
of  a  party  war  ;  bat  in  carrying  on  that  war,  all  principles 
and  rules  of  justice  should  not  be  departed  from. — The 
tories  must  confess,  that  the  most  obnoxious  persons  have 
lelt  few  instances  of  extra-judicial  power.  Wherever 
they  have  been  arraigned,  a  plain  charge  has  been  exhi- 
bited against  them.  They  have  had  an  impartial  trial, 
and  have  been  permitted  to  make  their  defence  j  and  will 


20  AMERICAN 

they,  who  have  experienced  this  fair  and  equitable  mode 
of  proceeding,  act  in  direct  opposition  to  every  principle 
of  justice,  and  establish  this  fatal  precedent  of  parliamen- 
tary inquisition  ?  and  whom  would  they  conciliate  by  a 
conduct  so  contrary  to  principle  and  |)recedent. 

Can  it  be  fitting  in  them,  who  have  divided  the  public 
opinion  of  the  nation,  to  share  it  with  those  who  now  ap- 
pear as  their  competitors?  With  the  men  of  yesterday,  the 
boys  in  politics,  who  would  be  absolutely  contemptible  did 
not  their  audacity  render  them  detestable?  With  the  mock 
patriots,  whose  practice  and  professions  prove  their  sel- 
fishness and  malignity,  who  threatened  to  pursue  me  to 
destruction,  and  who  have  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight 
of  their  object?  These  men,  under  the  name  of  Separatists, 
presume  to  call  themselves,  exclusively,  the  nation  and  the 
people,  and  under  that  character,  assume  all  power.  In 
their  estimation,  the  king,  lords,  and  commons  are  a  fac- 
tion, and  they  are  the  government.  Upon  these  principles 
they  threaten  the  destruction  of  all  authority,  and  think 
they  have  a  right  to  judge,  direct,  and  resist,  all  legal 
magistrates.  They  withdraw  from  parliament  because 
they  succeed  in  nothing,  and  then  attribute  their  want  of 
success  not  to  its  true  cause,  their  own  want  of  integrity 
and  importance,  but  to  the  effect  of  places,  pensions,  and 
corruption.  May  it  not  be  asked,  are  the  people  on  the 
court  side  more  united  than  on  the  other?  Are  not  the  to- 
ries,  Jacobites,  and  patriots  equally  determined  ?  What 
makes  this  strict  union  ?  What  cements  this  heterogenous 
mass?  Party  engagements  and  personal  attachments.  How- 
ever different  their  views  and  principles,  they  all  agree  in 
opposition.  The  Jacobites  distress  the  government  they 
would  subvert ;  the  tories  contend  for  party  prevalence 
and  power.  The  patriots,  for  discontent  and  disappoint- 
ment, would  change  the  ministry,  that  themselves  might 
exclusively  succeed.  They  have  laboured  this  point  tvycur 
ty  years  unsuccessfully  ;  they  are  impatient  of  longer  de- 
lay. They  clamour  for  change  of  measures,  but  mean 
only  change  of  ministers. 

In  party  contests,  whv  should  not  both  sides  be  equally 
steady  ?  Does  not  a  whig  administration  as  well  deserve 
the  support  of  the  whigs  as  the  contrary  ?  Why  is  not 
principle  the  cement  in  one  as  well  as  the  other,  especially 


SPEAKER.  21 

when  they  confess,  that  all  is  levelled  against  ene  man  ? 
Why  this  one  man  ?  Because  they  think,  vainly,  nobody 
else  could  withstand  them.  All  others  are  treated  as 
tools  and  vassals.  The  one  is  the  corruptor ;  the  num- 
bers corrupted.  But  whence  this  cry  of  corruption,  and 
exclusive  claim  of  honorable  distinction  ?  Compare  the  es- 
tates, characters,  and  fortunes  of  the  commons  on  one  side, 
with  those  on  the  other.  Let  the  matter  be  fairly  investi- 
giited.  Survey  and  examine  the  individuals  who  usually 
support  the  measures  of  government,  and  those  who  are 
in  opposition.  Let  us  see  to  whose  side  the  balance  pre- 
ponderates. Look  round  both  houses,  and  see  to  which 
side  the  balance  of  virtue  and  talents  preponderates.  Are 
all  these  on  one  -side,  and  not  on  the  other  ?  Or  are  all 
these  to  be  counterbalanced  by  an  affected  claim  to  the 
exclusive  title  of  patriotism.  Gentlemen  Have  talked  a 
great  deal  about  patriotism. — A  venerable  v/ord,  when 
duly  practised.  But  I  am  sorry  to  say,  that  of  late  it  has 
been  so  much  hackneyed  about,  that  it  i-s  in  danger  of  fall- 
ing into  disgrace.  The  very  idea  of  true  patriotism  is 
lost ;  and  the  term  has  been  prostituted  to  the  very  worst 
of  purposes.  A  patriot,  sir ! — Why  patriots  spring  up 
like  mushrooms!  I  could  raise  (ihy  of  them  within  the 
four  and  twenty  hours.  I  have  raised  many  of  them  in 
one  night.  It  is  but  refusing  to  gratify  an  unreasonable 
or  an  insolent  demand,  and  up  starts  a  patriot.  I  have 
never  been  afraid  of  making  patriots  ;  but  I  disdain  and 
despise  all  their  efforts.  But  this  pretended  virtue  pro- 
ceeds from  personal  malice,  and  from  disappointed  ambi- 
tion. There  is  not  a  man  amongst  them  whose  particular 
aim  I  am  not  able  to  ascertain,  and  from  what  motive  they 
have  entered  into  the  lists  of  opposition. 

Speech  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  in  the  house  of  Lords ^  in  the 
year  17'43,  on  a  motio?i  of  Lord  Hardxvieke  for  makings 
the  descendents  of  Traitors  punishable  for  the  Treason 
of  their  ancestors. 

"  My  Lords,-^THOUGH  I  hope  that  I  have  never 
given  reason  for  suspicion,  that  I  am  less  zealous  than 
any  other  lord  for  the  security  of  our  present  constitution, 
or  the  defence  of  the  family  now  upon  the  throne  ;  though 
I  desire  to  be  considered  as  equally  zealous  for  liberty, 


22  AMERICAN 

and  equally  tenacious  of  those  laws  which  secure  property 
with  every  other  man  ;  though  1  am  convinced  that  ~a 
Prince  forced  upon  us  by  the  armies  and  fleets  of  France 
will  become  only  the  Vice-Roy  of  the  monarch  to  whom 
he  owes  his  exaltation,  and  th^-.t  we  should  thenceforth  be 
considered  by  the  French  as  their  tributaries  and  their 
vassals,  yet  I  cannot  approve  the  motion  which  the  noble 
lord  has  made. 

"  Your  lordships  cannot  be  surprised  that  I  am  alarmed 
at  thi  proposal  of  a  law  like  this,  I,  whose  family  has  suf- 
f{  rtd  so  lately  the  deprivation  of  its  rank  and  its  fortune  by 
thv^^  tyranny  of  a  court  j  I,  whose  grandfathtr  was  cut  off 
by  an  unjust  prosecution,  and  whose  father  was  condemn- 
ed tor  mai»y  \  ears  to  see  himself  deprived  of  the  rights  of 
his  birth,  which  were  at  length  restored  to  him  by  more 
equitable  judges.  It  is  surely  reasonable,  my  lords,  that 
I  should  oppose  the  execution  of  penalties  to  the  descen- 
dants of  offenders,  who  have  scarcely  myself  escaped  the 
blast  of  an  cittainder.  I  am  very  far  from  denying,  my 
lords,  what  has  been  asserted,  that  the  French  have  long 
been  aspiring  to  universal  monarchy  ;  that  they  consider 
their  projects  as  liable  to  be  defeated  only  by  the  Eng- 
lish ;  and  that  they  have  therefore  for  many  years  labor- 
ed, to  give  a  king  to  England  ;  but,  my  lords,  the  ill  suc- 
cess of  all  tfaeir  past  attempts  convinces  me,  that  they  have 
nothing  to  hope  from  any  future  efforts  of  the  same  kind, 
and  that  therefore  we  need  not  have  recourse  to  new  de- 
grees of  severity,  or  enact  penal  laws  of  an  extraordinary 
kind  to  prevent  that  which  experience  has  shewn  impossi- 
ble to  be  accomplished. 

"  What  could  not  be  accomplished  by  the  power  or  the 
policy  of  the  great  French  monarch,  may,  very  justly,  be 
considered  by  his  successor  as  an  hopeless  project ;  for 
the  French  counsels  do  not  now  appear  to  be  guided  by 
the  wisdom  which  at  that  time  was  discovered  in  all  their 
treaties  and  negotiations,  nor  have  their  arms  yet  acquir- 
^  that  reputation  which  filled  half  the  nations  of  the  world 
with  terror.  They  are  not  able  now  to  influence  kingdoms 
by  their  manifestos,  or  to  revive  a  dejected  party  by  the 
promise  of  their  assistance :  they  are  now  indeed  wealthy 
and  powerful,  but  they  are  not  wealthy  to  such  a  degree  as 


SPEAKER.  23 

to  hire  the  nation  to  destroy  itself,  nor  so  powerful  as  to 
sink  it  to  despair. 

Besides,  not  only  the  force  which  is  to  be  employed 
against  the  fabric  of  our  constitution  is  diminished  ;  but 
the  edifice  is  grown  stronger  by  time,  the  basis  is  sunk 
deeper,  the  superstructure  is  become  more  solid,  and  all 
the  parts  havt  by  dtgrees  conformed  to  each  other,  so 
that  there  is  no  chasm  or  weakness  to  be  found.  Many 
circumstances,  by  which  the  French  were  formerly  indu- 
ced to  hope  for  success  have  now  vanished  for  ever.  The 
nation  was  then  divided  into  two  parties,  of  which  that 
which  publicly  avowed  the  desire  of  restoring  the  exiled 
family  to  the  throne,  was  generally  computed  to  be  more 
numerous.  This  infatuation,  my  lords,  is  now  at  an  end : 
the  numbers  of  the  Jacobites  are  reduced  to  a  small  set 
below  consideration,  and  seem  now  more  desirous  to  en- 
joy their  opinions  in  peace  and  privacy,  than  to  make 
proselytes ;  and  to  be  tolerated  by  the  lenity  of  the  go- 
vernment, than  to  endanger  themselves  by  new  provoca- 
tions. 

The  English  people,  my  lords,  are  now  consolidated 
into  one  body,  and  more  uniformly  together ;  they  have 
at  last  discovered  that  nominal  distinctions  are  only  idle 
sound,  by  which  they  have  been  long  amused  by  more 
parties  than  one^  while  they  were  plundered,  and  oppress- 
ed. And  whosoever  shall  review  the  conduct  of  the  peo- 
ple for  about  twenty  years  backward,  shall  hnd  that  they 
have  every  year  appeared  better  informed  of  the  true  na- 
ture of  our  government,  and  that  they  have  sacrificed,  all 
narrow  views  and  petty  considerations  to  the  great  scheme 
of  general  felicity  ;  that  they  have  acted  steadily,  resolute- 
ly, and  wisely ;  and  that  in  their  regard  for  one  man,  or 
their  opposition  to  another,  they  have  considered  truly 
how  far  the  public  good  was  promoted  or  obstructed  by 
their  counsels. 

On  the  present  occasion,  my  lords,  they  have  given  the 
fullest  proof  of  their  loyalty  which  they  are  able  to  exhi- 
bit, by  innumerable  addresses  sent  from  all  parts,  and 
drawn  up  in  terms  which  express  the  firmest  fidelity  and 
warmest  affections, — professions,  my  lords,  which  surely 
deserve  some  oiher  return  than  the  severity  of  a  penal 
law,  a  law  by  which  one  person  is  condemned  to  suffer 


24  AMERICAN 

for  the  crime  of  another.  As  it  is  necessary,  my  lords, 
that  subjects  should  obey  their  governors,  so  it  is  likewise 
reasonable,  that  governors  should  trust  their  subjects ;  at 
least  that  they  should  not  studiously  disgust  them  by 
groundless  suspicions  ,  for  when  the  people  see  that  no 
degree  of  obedience  can  recommend  them  to  regard,  they 
will  naturally  lose  their  affection  for  their  superiors ;  and 
when  their  affection  is  once  extinguished,  if  they  do  not 
violate  their  duty,  they  will  at  least  neglect  it.  To  be 
stispected  my  lords,  is  always  offensive,  and  as  a  suspi- 
cious man  is  perpetually  harassing  himself  with  superflu- 
ous vigilance,  disturbing  his  quiet  with  dreams  of  dan- 
ger, and  wearying  himself  by  providing  securities  against 
violence  or  fraud  which  never  was  designed,  so  a  suspi- 
cious government  always  defeats  its  own  endeavours,  and 
by  destroying  that  popularity  to  which  it  must  always 
trust  for  its  defenct:  in  time  of  real  danger,  weakens  it- 
self. The  multiplication  of  penal  laws,  the  establishment 
of  armies,  and  the  distribution  of  pensions,  the  usual  me- 
thods by  which  weak  governments  endeavour  to  strength- 
en their  basis,  are  all  transitory  and  uncertain  supports, 
which  the  first  blast  of  general  discontent  may  drive  be- 
fore it,  and  v/hich  have  a  tendency  to  produce  that  rage 
which  they  cannot  lurnish  the  means  of  resisting.  I  think 
it  therefore  necessary,  my  lords,  to  oppose  this  motion, 
because  I  think  it  my  duty  to  preserve  the  government 
from  the  greatest  of  all  evils,  the  loss  of  popularity  ;  and 
am  of  opinion  that  ten  thousand  penal  laws  cannot  so 
much  contribute  to  the  perpetual  establishment  of  the 
royal  family,  as  one  act  of  confidence,  condescension,  or 
bounty,  by  which  the  affections  of  the  people  may  be  con- 
ciliated. 

But  this,  my  lords,  is  not  the  only  argument  against  it, 
by  which  I  am  inclined  to  deny  my  concurrence.  It 
ought  to  be  always  remembered,  and  by  me  shall  not  be 
easily  forgotton,  that  we  are  here  assembled  to  deliberate, 
not  for  any  particular  purposes  or  narrow  plans,  but  for 
the  great  end  of  society,  the  general  happiness ;  that,  as 
we  are  not  to  gratify  the  caprices  of  the  people  by  vilify- 
ing the  dignity  or  restraining  the  power  of  the  throne,  so 
we  are  not  to  appease  the  suspicions  of  the  throne  by  sa- 
crificing the  safety  or  honor  of  the  people :  we  are  to  sup- 


SPEAKER.  25 

port  our  sovereign,  indeed,  but  not  by  such  means  as  de- 
stroy the  ends  by  which  sovereignty  was  established,  the 
public  welfare,  and  common  security.  The  motion  is 
therefore,  in  my  opinion,  wholly  indefensible,  because, 
though  it  should  be  granted  that  it  may  add  som ;  secu- 
rity to  the  throne,  it  must  in  proportion  impair  the  happi- 
ness of  the  people,  as  it  must  fill  the  nation  in  this  time  of 
general  commotion  with  anxiety,  and  oblige  almost  every 
man  to  the  unnatural  and  unavailing  care  of  watching  the 
conduct  of  another,  and  at  last  must  involve  thousands  in 
undeserved  misery,  by  punishing  them  for  crimes  which 
they  did  not  commit,  ^md  which  they  could  not  prevent, 
and  inflicting  penalties,  therefore,  which  can  have  no  other 
effect  than  that  of  enriching,  by  forfeitures,  the  minions  of 
the  court.  These  reasons,  my  lords,  are  surely  sufficiently 
powerful  to  justify  me  in  opposmg  the  motion  ;  and  yet 
there  remains  another,  which  pjrhaps  may,  when  it  is 
fully  examined,  appear  equally  weighty.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  happiness  of  our  present  state,  the  protection  of 
our  rights,  and  the  security  of  our  property  ;  notwith- 
standing the  confidence  which  may  be  reposed  in  the 
equity,  the  moderation,  and  the  wisdom  of  his  Majesty, 
and  the  hopes  which  we  may  reasonably  have  of  bemg 
governed  to  all  succeeding  ages  by  his  i  lusirious  descen- 
dants v/ith  the  same  justice,  and  magnanimity,  and  pru- 
dence, yet  I  am  not  confident  that  th -se  hopes  may  not  be 
disappointed.  I  know  not  any  evidence,  by  which  I  can 
ascertain  the  continuance  of  these  blessmgs  or  by  which  I 
can  prove  to  the  people  of  England,  that  there  never  will 
come  a  time  in  which  a  superstitious,  an  ambitious,  or  a 
tyrannical  prince  may  once  more  attempt  the  subversion  of 
their  rights,  the  seizure  of  their  properties,  or  the  aboli- 
tion of  their  religion.  I  am  not  certain  that  our  constitu- 
tion is  so  strongly  built  that  it  can  never  want  repairs,  or 
that  our  laws  are  so  judiciously  formed,  as  that  they  may 
not  bccom  ,  in  the  hands  of  rapacity,  the  toos  of  avarice, 
or  in  the  hands  of  cruelty  the  scourge  of  oppression. 
Whenever  this  fatal  prriod  shall  arrive,  it  niust  be  .u,rant- 
ed,  my  lords,  that  another  revolution  will  be  nectssary, 
and  that  every  law,  which  shall  hinder  the  people  from 
m  tkmg  use  of  the  only  remedy  which  thci»  remains,  will 
obstruct  the  public  happiness,  and  counteract  the  great  de« 

D 


26  AMERICAN 

sign  of  government ;  and  surely,  my  lords,  a  law  which 
involves  the  son  in  the  guilt  of  his  father,  must  naturally 
extinguish  chat  ardor  of  patriotism  by  which  all  revolutions 
have  been  accomplished.  For  who  will  be  found  suffi- 
ciently hardy  to  oppose  the  crown,  when  if  he  should  hap- 
pen to  fail,  he  must  not  only  perish  as  a  traitor,  but  sink 
his  whole  posterity  in  poverty  and  disgrace?  Since  there- 
fore, my  lords,  it  appears  to  me  not  more  likely  that  the 
king  of  England  will  be  in  danger  from  his  subjects,  than 
that  the  people  of  England  will  be  in  danger  trom  their 
king,  I  think  it  convenient  to  hold  the  balance  equal  be- 
tween them  ;  as  I  would  not  give  the  people  any  exemp- 
tion which  might  encourage  them  to  rebel,  I  would  give 
the  crown  no  such  prerogatives  as  may  encourage  any  fu- 
ture monarchs  to  oppress  on. 

"  Thus,  my  lords,  I  have  laid  before  you  the  argu- 
ments which  influence  me  to  disapprove  the  motion  ;  and 
which  will,  I  believe,  determine  me  to  vote  against  it : 
for  though  I  am  desirous  to  secure  the  throne,  I  would 
not  willingly  secure  it  by  disarming  the  people,  but  by 
placing  them  as  guards  before  it.  The  dependence  of 
the  monarch  and  the  subjects  ought  to  be  on  reciprocal 
affection  and  mutual  assistance,  and  therefore  neither 
ought  to  imagine  that  any  increase  of  safety  is  to  be  ob- 
tained by  diminishing  the  legal  privileges  of  one,  or  vio- 
lating the  natural  rights  of  the  other." 

The  Speech  of  General  Wolfe  to  his  Army — before  ^lebec^ 

1759. 

"  I  congratulate  you,  my  brave  countrymen,  and  fel- 
low-soldiers !  on  the  spirit  and  success  with  which  you 
have  executed  this  important  part  of  our  enterprise.  The 
formidable  Heights  of  Abraham  are  now  surmounted; 
and  the  city  of  Qu'  bee,  the  object  of  all  our  toils,  now 
stands  in  full  view  before  us.  A  perfidious  enemy  who 
have  dared  to  exasperate  you  by  their  cruelties,  hut  not  to 
oppose  you  on  equal  ground,  are  now  constrained  to  face 
you  on  the  open  plain,  without  ramp.irts  or  entrenchments 
to  shelter  them. 

*"  You  know  too  well  the  forces  which  compose  their 
army  to  dread  their  superior  numbers.  A  few  regular 
troops  from  Old  France,  weakened  by  hunger  and  sick- 
ness, who,  when  fresh,  were  unable  to  withstand  the  Bri- 


SPEAKER.  27 

tish  soldiers,  are  their  General's  chief  dependence.  Those 
numerous  companies  of  Canadians,  insolent,  mutinous, 
unsteady,  and  ill-disciplined,  have  exercised  his  utmost 
skill  to  keep  them  together  to  this  time  ;  and  as  soon  as 
their  irregular  ardor  is  damped  by  one  firm  fire,  they  will 
instanily  turn  their  backs,  and  give  you  no  further  trouble 
but  in  the  pursuit.  As  for  those  savage  tribes  of  Indians, 
whose  horrid  yells  in  the  forests  have  struck  many  a  bold 
heart  with  affright,  terrible  as  they  are  with  a  tomahawk 
and  scalping-knife  to  a  flying  and  prostrate  foe,  you  have 
experienced  how  little  their  ferocity  is  to  be  dreaded  by 
resolute  men  upon  fair  and  open  ground :  you  can  now 
only  consider  them  as  the  just  objects  of  a  severe  revenge 
for  the  unhappy  fate  of  mimy  slaughtered  countrymen. 

'*  This  day  puts  it  into  your  power  to  terminate  the  fa- 
tigues of  a  siege  which  has  so  long  employed  your  cou- 
rage and  patience.  Possessed  with  a  full  confidence  of 
the  certain  success  which  British  valor  must  gain  over 
such  enemies,  I  have  led  you  up  these  steep  and  danger- 
ous rocks;  only  solicitous  to  shew  you  the  foe  within  vour 
reach.  The  impos^sibility  of  a  retreat  makes  no  difTerence 
in  the  situation  of  men  resolved  to  conquer  or  die  :  and, 
believe  me,  my  friends,  if  your  conquest  could  be  bought 
with  the  blood  of  your  general,  he  would  most  cheer- 
fully resign  a  life  which  he  has  long  devoted  to  his 
country." 

Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Lord  Chatham^  on  a  motion  of 
Address  to  the  King, 

Let  us  be  cautious  how  we  admit  an  idea,  that  our 
rights  stand  on  a  footing  different  from  those  of  the  peo- 
ple. Let  us  be  cautious  how  we  invade  the  liberties  of 
our  fellow-subjects,  however  mean,  however  remote  ;  for 
be  assured,  my  lords,  that  in  whatever  part  of  the  empire 
you  suffer  slavery  to  be  established,  whether  it  be  in  Ame- 
rica or  in  Ireland,  or  here  at  home,  you  will  find  it  a  dis- 
ease which  spreads  by  contact,  and  soon  reaches  from  the 
extremities  to  the  heart.  The  man  who  has  lost  his  own 
freedom,  becomes  from  that  moment  an  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  an  ambitious  prince,  to  destroy  the  freedom  of 
others.  These  refle^^tions,  my  lords,  are  but  too  applica- 
Ijle  to  our  present  situation.     The  liberty  of  the  subject  is 


28  AMERICAN 

invaded,  not  only  in  provinces,  but  here  at  home.  The 
English  people  are  loud  in  their  complaints :  they  pro- 
claim with  one  voice  the  injuries  they  have  received  :  they 
demand  redress,  and  depend  upon  it,  my  lords,  that  one 
way  or  other,  they  will  have  redress.  They  will  never  re- 
turn to  a  state  ot  tranquiiliry  until  they  are  redressed  ;  nor 
ought  they  ;  for  in  my  judgment,  my  lords,  and  I  speak  it 
boldly,  it  were  better  for  them  to  perish  in  a  glorious  conten- 
tion for  their  rights,  than  to  purchase  a  slavish  tranquillity 
at  the  expence  of  a  single  iota  of  the  constitution.  Let 
me  entreat  your  lordships,  then,  in  the  name  of  all  the  du- 
ties you  owe  to  your  sovereign,  to  your  country,  and  to 
yourselves,  to  perform  that  office  to  which  you  are  called 
by  the  constitution  ;  by  informing  his  majesty  truly  of  the 
condition  of  his  subjects,  and  of  the  real  cause  of  their 
dissatisfaction. 

Speech  on  the  Seizure  of  the  Falkland  Islands* 

Earl  of  Chatham*  "  I  rise  to  give  my  heartv  assent  to 
the  motion  made  by  the  noble  Duke  j  by  his  Grace's  fa- 
vour, I  have  been  permitted  to  see  it,  before  it  was  offered 
to  the  House.  I  hiive  fully  considered  the  necessity  of  ob- 
taining from  the  King's  servants  a  communication  of  the 
papers  described  in  the  motion,  and  I  am  persuaded  that 
the  alarming  state  of  facts,  as  well  as  the  strength  of  rea- 
f.oning,  with  which  the  noble  Duke  has  urged,  and  enforc- 
ed that  necessity,  must  have  been  powerfully  felt  by  your 
lordships; — what  I  mean  to  say,  upon  this  occasion,  may 
seem  perhaps  to  extend  beyond  the  limits  of  the  motion 
before  us.  But  I  flatter  myself,  my  lords,  that  if  I  am 
honored  v/ith  your  attention,  it  will  appear  that  the  mean- 
ing and  object  of  this  question  are  naturally  connected 
with  considerations  of  the  most  extensive,  national  impor- 
tance. For  entering  into  such  considerations,  no  season 
is  improper;  no  occasion  should  be  neglected.  Some- 
thing must  be  done,  my  lords,  and  immediately,  to  save 
an  injured,  insulted,  undone  country.  If  not  to  save  the 
state,  my  lords,  at  least  to  mark  out,  and  drag  to  public 
justice  those  servants  of  the  crown,  by  whose  ignorance, 
neglect,  or  treachery,  this  once  great  flourishing  people 
are  reduced  to  a  condition  as  deplorable  at  home,  as  it  is 
despicable  abroad.     Examples  are  wanted,  my  iQrds,  and 


SPEAKER.  29 

should  be  given  to  the  world,  for  the  instruction  of  future 
times,  even  though  they  be  useless  to  ourselves.  I  do 
not  mean,  my  lords,  nor  is  it  intended  bv  the  motion,  to 
impede,  or  embarrass  a  negotiation,  which  we  have  been 
told  is  now  in  a  prosperous  train,  and  promises  a  happy 
conclusion." 

Lord  Weymouth.  I  beg  pardon  for  interrupting  the 
noble  lord,  but  I  think  it  necessary  to  remark  to  your 
lordships,  that  I  have  not  said  a  single  word  tending  to 
convey  to  your  lordships  any  information,  or  opini>^n, 
with  regard  to  the  state,  or  progress  of  the  negotiation — 
I  did,  with  the  utmost  caution,  avoid  giving  to  your  lord- 
ships the  least  intimation  upon  that  matter. 

Earl  of  Chatham.  "  I  perfectly  agree  with  the  noble 
lord.  I  did  not  mean  to  refer  to  any  thing  said  by  his 
lordship.  He  expressed  himself,  as  he  always  does^  with 
moderation,  and  reserve,  and  with  the  greatest  propriety; 
— it  was  another  n(.'ble  lord,  very  high  in  ofTice,  who  told 
us  he  understood  that  the  negotiation  was  in  a  favourable 
train." 

Earl  of  Hillsborough.  I  did  not  make  use  of  the  word 
train.  I  know  the  meaning  of  the  word  too  well.  Irk 
the  language  from  which  it  was  derived,  it  signifies  pro- 
traction, and  delay,  which  I  could  never  mean  to  apply  to 
the  present  negociation. 

Earl  of  Chatham.  "  This  is  the  second  time  that  I 
have  been  interrupted.  I  submit  it  to  your  lordships 
whether  this  be  fair,  and  candid  treatment.  I  am  sure 
it  is  contrary  to  the  orders  of  the  House,  and  a  gross  vio- 
lation of  dea.  ncy,  and  politeness.  I  listen  to  everv  noble 
lord  in  this  House  with  attention,  ai>d  respect.  The  no- 
ble lord's  design  in  interrupting  me,  is  as  mean,  and  un- 
worthy, as  i.\Q  manner  in  v/hich  he  has  done  is  irregular 
and  disorderly.  He  flutters  himself  that,  by  breaking  the 
thread  ol  my  discourse,  he  shall  confuse  me  in  my  argu- 
ment. But,  my  lords,  I  will  not  submit  to  this  treatments 
I  will  not  be  interrupted.  When  I  have  concluded  let  hiiu 
answer  me  if  he  can. — As  to  the  word,  which  he  has  de- 
nied, I  still  affirm  that  it  was  the  w^rd  he  made  use  of; 
but  if  he  had  used  any  other,  I  am  sure  every  noble  lord 
will  agree  with  me,  that  his  meaning  was  exactlv  what  I 
had  expressed  it.     Whether  he  said  course  or  traiti  is  £rj= 


30  AMERICAN 

difFerent— ?He  told  your  lordships  that  the  negotiation  was 
in  a  way  that  promised  a  happy,  and  honourable  conclu- 
sion. His  distinctions  are  mean,  frivolous,  and  puerile. 
3V1\  lords, — I  do  not  understand  the  exalted  tone  assum- 
ed by  that  noble  lord.  In  the  distress,  and  weakness  of 
this  country,  my  lords,  r.nd  conscious  as  the  ministry  ought 
to  be  how  much  they  have  contributed  to  that  distress  and 
weakness,  I  think  a  tone  of  modesty,  of  submission,  of 
humility,  would  become  them  better;  qiK^dam  caiisce  7710- 
destiam  desiderant.  Before  this  country  they  stand  as 
the  greatest  criminals. "  Such  I  shall  prove  them  to  be  ; 
for  1  do  not  doubt  of  pnwing  to  your  lordship's  satisfac- 
tion, that  since  they  have  been  entrusted  with  the  con- 
duct of  the  king's  iffasrs  they  have  done  every  thing  that 
they  ought  not  to  have  done,  and  hardly  any  thing  that 
they  ought  to  have  done — The  noble  lord  talks  of  Spanish 
punctilios  in  the  lofty  style  and  odium  of  a  Spaniard.  We 
•are  to  be  worderfully  tender  of  the  Spanish  point  of  hon- 
our, as  if  they  had  been  the  complainants,  as  if  they  had 
received  the  injury.  I  think  he  would  have  done  better 
to  have  told  us,  what  care  had  been  taken  of  the  English 
honour.  My  lords,  I  am  well  ac  quainted  with  the  character 
ol  that  nation,  as  least  as  i<\Y  as  it  is  represented  by  their 
court  and  mmistry,  and  should  think  this  country  dishon- 
oured by  a  comparison  of  the  English  good  faith  with  the 
punctilios  of  a  Spaniard.  My  lords,  the  English  are  a  can- 
did, an  ingenuous  people ;  the  Spaniards  are  as  mean  and 
cr.  fty,  as  they  are  proud  and  insolent.  The  integrity  of 
the  English  merchants,  the  generous  spirit  of  our  naval 
and  military  ofRcers,  would  be  degraded  by  a  comparison 
with  their  merchants  or  officers.  With  their  ministers  I 
have  often  been  obliged  to  negotiate,  and  never  met  with 
an  instance  of  candour  or  dignity  in  their  j-ioceedings  ;. 
nothing  but  low  cunning,  trick,  and  artifice.  Alter  a  long 
experience  of  their  want  of  candour  and  good  faith,  I 
found  myself  compelled  to  talk  to  them  in  a  peremptor- , 
decisive  language^  On  this  principle  I  submitted  m)  ad- 
vice to  a  trembling  council  for  an  immediate  dech.ration 
of  war  with  Spain.  Your  lordships  well  know  what  were 
the  consequences  of  not  following  that  advice.  Smce, 
however,  for  reasons  unknown  to  me,  it  has  been  thought 
-adviseuble-  to  liegotiate  with  the  court  of  Spain,  1  should 


SPEAKER.  31 

have  conceived  that  the  great  and  single  object  of  such  a 
negotiation  would  have  been,  to  have  obtained  complete 
satisfaction  for  the  injury  done  to  the  crown  and  people 
of  England.  But,  if  I  understand  the  noble  lord,  the 
only  object  of  the  present  negotiation  is  to  find  a  salvo  for 
the  punctilious  honour  of  thf  Spaniards.  The  absurdity 
of  such  an  idea  is  of  itself  insupportable.  But,  my  lords, 
I  object  to  our  negotiating  at  all,  in  our  present  circum- 
stances. We  are  not  in  that  situation,  in  which  a  great 
and  powerful  nation  is  permitted  to  negotiate. — A  foreign 
power  has  forcibly  robbed  his  majesty  of  a  part  of  his 
dominions.  Is  the  island  restored.^  Are  you  replaced  in 
statu  quo'?  If  that  had  been  done,  it  might  then  perhaps 
have  been  justifiable  to  treat  with  the  aggressor  upon  the 
satisfaction  he  ought  to  make  for  the  insult  offered  to  the 
crown  of  England.  But  will  you  descend  so  low  ?  will 
you  so  shamefully  betray  the  king's  honour,  as  to  make  it 
matter  of  negotiation  whether  his  Majesty's  possessions 
shall  be  restored  to  him  or  not  ?  1  doubt  not,  my  lords, 
that  there  are  some  important  mysteries  m  the  conduct  of 
this  affair,  which,  whenever  they  are  explained,  will  ac- 
count for  the  profound  silence  now  observed  by  the  king's 
servants.  The  time  will  come,  my  lords,  when  they  shall 
be  dragged  from  their  concealments.  There  are  some 
questions,  which,  sooner  or  later,  must  be  answered.  The 
ministry,  I  find,  without  declaring  themselves  explicitly, 
have  taken  pains  to  possess  the  public  with  an  opinion, 
that  the  Spanish  court  have  constaMly  disavowed  the  pro- 
ceedings of  their  governor;  and  son\e  pers(.ns,  I  see,  have 
been  shameless  and  daring  enough  to  advise  his  majesty 
to  support  and  countenance  this  opinion  in  his  speech  from 
the  throne.  Certainly,  my  lords,  there  nevc-r  was  a  more 
odious,  a  more  infamous  falsehood  imposed  on  a  great  na- 
tion— It  degrades  the  king's  honour — It  is  an  insult  to 
parliament.  His  majesty  hns  been  advised  to  confirm 
and  give  currency  to  an  absolute  falsehood.  I  beg  your 
lordship's  attention,  and  i  hope  \  shall  be  understood, 
when  I  repeat,  that  the  court  of  Spain's  having  disavowed 
the  act  of  their  governor  is  an  absolute^  a  palpable  false- 
hood. Let  me  ask,  my  lords,  when  the  first  communica- 
tion was  made  by  the  court  of  Madrid,  of  their  being  ap- 
prised of  their  talking  of  Falkland's  Islands,  was  it  ac- 


32  AMERICAN 

companied  with  an  offer  of  instant  restitution,  of  imme- 
diate satisfaction,  and  the  punishment  of  the  Spanish  go- 
vernor? If  it  was  not,  they  have  adopted  the  act  as  their 
own,  and  the  very  mention  of  a  disavowal  is  an  impudent 
insuU  offered  to  the  king's  dignity.  The  king  of  Spain 
disowns  the  thief,  while  he  leaves  him  unpunished,  and 
profits  by  the  theft ;  in  vulgar  English,  he  is  the  receiver 
of  stolen  goods,  and  ought  to  be  treated  accordingly. 

"•  If  your  lordships  will  look  back  to  a  period  of  the 
English  history,  in  which  the  circumstances  are  reversed, 
in  which  the  Spaniards  were  the  complainants,  you  will 
see  how  differently  they  succeeded  ;  you  will  see  one  of 
the  ablest  men,  one  of  the  bravest  officers  this  or  any  other 
country  ever  produced  (it  is  h  irdly  necessary  to  mention 
the  name  of  sir  Walter  Raleigh)  sacrificed  by  the  mean- 
est prince  that  ever  sat  upon  the  throne,  to  the  vindictive 
jealousy  of  that  haughty  court.  J  mies  the  First  was 
base  enough,  at  the  instance  of  Gondomar,  to  suffer  a  sen- 
tence against  sir  Walter  Raleigh,  for  another  supposed 
offence,  to  be  carried  into  execution  almost  twelve  years 
after  it  had  been  passed.  This  was  the  pretence.  His 
real  crime  was,  that  he  had  mortally  offended  the  Spa- 
niards, while  he  acted  by  the  king's  express  orders,  and 
under  his  commissi  cm. 

"  My  lords,  the  pretended  disavowal  by  the  court  of 
Spain  is  as  ridiculous  ns  it  is  false.  If  your  lordships 
want  any  other  proof,  cali  for  your  own  officers,  who  were 
stationed  at  Falkland  Island.  Ask  the  officer  who  com- 
ma..ded  the  garrison,  whether,  when  he  was  summoned 
to  surrender,  the  demand  w  >s  made  in  the  name  of  the 
governor  of  Buenos  Ayres,  or  of  his  Catholic  Majesty  t 
Was  the  island  said  to  belong  to  Don  Francisco  Bucarelli, 
or  to  the  king  of  Spain  ?  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  we  have 
been  in  possession  of  these  islands  since  the  year  1764,  or 
1765.  Will  the  ministry  assert,  that,  in  all  that  time,  the 
Spanish  court  have  never  once  claimed  them?  that  their 
right  to  them  has  never  been  urged,  or  mentioned  to  our 
ministry  ?  If  it  has  the  act  of  the  governor  of  Buenos  Ayres 
is  plainly  the  const  quence  of  our  refusal  to  acknowledge 
and  submit  to  the  Spanish  claims.  For  five  years  they 
negotiate  ;  when  that  fails  they  take  the  island  by  force. 
II  that  measure  had  arisen  out  of  the  general  instructionsj^ 


SPEAKER.  33 

constantly  given  to  the  governor  of  Buenos  Ayres,  why 
should  the  execution  of  it  have  been  deferred  so  long? 

"  My  lords,  if  the  falsehood  of  this  pretended  disavow- 
al had  been  confined  to  the  court  of  Spain,  I  should  have 
admitted  it  without  concern.  I  should  have  been  content 
that  they  themselves  had  left  a  door  open  for  excuse,  and 
accommodation.  The  king  of  England's  honour  is  not 
touched  till  he  adopts  the  falsehood,  delivers  it  to  parlia- 
ment, and  makes  it  his  own. 

"  From  vvh.it  I  have  said,  my  lords,  I  do  not  doubt  but 
it  will  be  understood  by  many  lords,  and  given  out  to  the 
public,  that  I  am  for  harrying  the  nation,  at  all  events,  into 
a  war  with  Spain.  My  lords,  I  disclaim  such  councils, 
and  I  beg  that  this  declaration  may  be  remembered — Let 
us  have  peace,  my  lords,  but  let  it  be  honourable,  let  it  be 
secure.  A  patched  up  peace  will  not  do.  It  will  not  sa- 
tisfy the  nation,  though  it  may  be  approved  of  by  parlia- 
ment. I  distinguish  widely  between  a  solid  peace,  and 
the  disgraceful  expedients,  by  which  a  war  may  be  defer- 
red, but  cannot  be  avoided.  I  am  as  tender  of  the  effu- 
sion ol  human  blood,  as  the  noble  lord  who  dwelt  so  long 
upon  the  miseries  of  the  war.  If  the  bloody  politics  of 
some  noble  lords  had  been  followed,  England,  and  every 
quarter  of  his  majesty's  dominions  would  have  been  glut- 
ted with  blood — the  blood  of  our  own  countrymen. 

*'  My  lords,  I  have  better  reasons,  perhaps,  than  many 
of  your  lordships  for  desiring  peace  upon  the  terms  I  have 
dtscribed.  I  know  the  strength  and  preparation  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon  ;  I  know  the  defenceless,  unprepared 
condition  of  this  country.  I  know  not  by  what  misma- 
nagement we  are  reduced  to  this  situation  ;  and  when  I 
consider,  who  are  the  men  by  whom  a  war,  in  the  outset  at 
least,  must  be  conducted,  can  I  but  wish  for  peace  ? — Let 
them  not  screen  themselves  behind  the  want  oi  intelligence 
— they  had  intelligence;  I  know  they  had.  If  they  had 
not,  they  are  criminal;  and  their  excuse  is  their  crinf,— 
But  I  will  tell  these  young  ministers  the  true  source  of 
intelligence.  It  is  sagacity.  Say^acity  to  compare  causes 
and  effects  ;  to  judge  of  the  present  state  of  things,  and 
discern  the  future  by  a  careful  review  of  the  past. — Oliver 
Cromwell^  who  astonished  mankind  by  his  intelligence  did 
not  derive  it  from  spies  in  the  cabmet  of  every  pnnce  in 


34  AMERICAN 

Europe :  he  drew  it  from  the  cabinet  of  his  own  saga- 
cious mind.  He  observed  facts  and  traced  them  forward 
to  their  consequences.  From  what  was,  he  concluded 
what  must  be,  and  he  never  was  deceived.  In  the  pre- 
sent situation  of  affairs,  I  think  it  would  be  treachery  to 
the  nation  to  conceal  from  them  their  real  circumstances, 
and  with  respect  to  a  foreign  enejYw ,  I  kuow  that  all  con- 
cealments are  vain  and  useless.  They  are  as  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  actual  force  and  weakness  of  this  coun- 
try, as  any  of  the  king's  servants. — This  is  no  time  for  si- 
lence, or  reserve.  I  charge  the  ministers  with  the  high- 
est crimes  that  men  in  their  stations  can  be  guilty  of.  I 
charge  them  with  having  destroyed  all  content  and  unani- 
mity at  home,  by  a  series  of  oppressive,  unconstitutional 
measures ;  and  with  having  betrayed,  and  delivered  up 
the  nation  defenceless  to  a  foreign  enemy. 

"  Their  utmost  vigour  has  reached  no  farther  than  to  a 
fruitless,  protracted  negotiation.  When  they  should  have 
acted,  they  have  contented  themselves  with  talking  about  it, 
Goddess,  and  about  it — If  we  do  not  stand  forth,  and  do  our 
duty  in  th  present  crisis,  the  nation  is  irretrievably  un- 
done. I  despise  the  little  policy  of  concealments.  You 
ought  to  know  the  whole  of  your  situation.  If  the  infor- 
piation  be  new  to  the  ministry,  let  them  take  care  to  pro- 
fit by  it.  I  mean  to  rouse,  to  alarm  the  whole  nation — to 
rouse  the  ministry,  if  possible,  who  seem  to  awake  to  no- 
thing but  the  preservation  of  their  places — to  awaken  the 
king. 

Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Mr,  Pitt,  (after-wards  Earl  of 
Chatham)  on   the  address   to    the   King,  in   January^ 

1765. 

"  It  is  a  long  time,  Mr.  Speaker,  since  I  have  attended 
in  parliament.  When  the  resolution  was  taken  in  this 
house  to  tax  America,  I  was  ill  in  bed.  If  I  could  have 
endured  to  have  been  carried  in  my  bed,  so  great  was  the 
agitation  of  my  mind  for  the  consequences,  I  would  have 
solicited  some  kind  hand  to  have  laid  me  down  on  this 
floor,  to  have  born  my  testimony  against  it.  It  is  my  opi» 
nion  that  this  kingdom  has  no  right  to  lay  a  tax  upon  the 
colonies.  At  the  same  time,  I  assert  the  authority  of  this 
Jfingdom  to  be  sovereign  and  supreme  in  every  circum- 


SPEAKER.  35 

stance  of  government  and  legislation  whatsoever.  Taxa- 
tion is  no  part  of  the  governing  or  legislative  power : 
the  taxes  are  a  voluntary  gift  and  grant  of  the  commons 
alone.  The  concurrence  of  the  peers  and  of  the  crown  is 
necessary  only  as  a  form  of  law.  This  house  represents 
the  commons  of  Great  Britain.  When  in  this  house  we 
give  and  grant ;  therefore  we  give  and  grant  what  is  our 
own;  but  can  we  give  and  grant  the  property  of  the  commons 
of  America?  Ii  is  an  absurdity  in  terms.  There  is  an  idea 
in  some,  that  the  colonies  are  virtually  represented  in  this 
house  ?  I  would  fain  know  by  whom  ?  The  idea  of  virtual 
representation  is  the  most  contemptible  that  ever  entered 
into  the  head  of  man:  it  does  not  deserve  a  serious  refu- 
tation. The  .commons  in  America  represent*. d  in  their 
several  assemblies,  have  invariably  exercised  this  consti- 
tutional right  of  giving  and  granting  their  own  money : 
they  would  have  been  slaves,  if  they  had  not  enjoyed  it. 
At  the  same  time  this  kingdom  has  ever  possessed  the 
power  of  legislative  and  commercial  control.  The  colo- 
nies acknowledge  your  authorities  in  all  things,  with  the 
sole  exception  that  you  shall  not  take  their  money  out  of 
their  pockets  without  th-ir  consent.  H  -re  would  I  draw 
the  line,  quani  ultra  citraque  nequit  consistere  rectum^ 

*'  Sir,  a  charge  is  brought  ag  unst  gentlemen  sitting  in  the 
house,  for  giving  birth  to  sedition  in  America.  The  free- 
dom, with  which  they  have  spoken  their  sentiments  against 
this  unhappy  act,  is  imputed  to  them  as  a  crime  ;  but  the 
imputation  shall  not  discourage  me.  It  is  a  liberty  which 
I  hope  no  gentleman  will  be  afraid  to  exercise :  it  is  a  li- 
berty by  which  the  gendemen  who  calumniates  it  mi^ht 
have  pr  >fited.  He  ought  to  have  desisted  from  his  pro- 
ject. We  are  told  America  is  obstinate — America  is 
almost  in  open  rebellion.  Sir,  I  rejoice  that  America 
has  resisted — three  millions  of  people  so  dead  to  ali  the 
feelings  of  liberty  as  volunt  irily  to  submit  to  be  slaves, 
would  have  been  fit  instruments  to  m  .ke  slaves  of  all  the 
rest.  I  came  not  here  armed  at  all  points  with  law  c  ises 
and  acts  of  parliament ;  with  the  statute  book  doubled 
down  in  dog's  ears  to  defend  the  cause  of  liberty ;  but  for 
the  defence  of  liberty  upon  a  general  constitutional  prin- 
ciple ;  it  IS  a  ground  on  which  I  dare  mert  any  man:  I 
will  not  debate  points  of  law  ;  but  what,  after  all,  do  the 


36  AMERICAN 

cases  of  Chester  and  Durham  prove,  but  that,  under  the 
most  arbitrary  reigns,  parliament  were  ashamed  of  taxing 
a  people  without  their  consent,  and  allowed  them  repre- 
sentatives? A  higher  and  better  example  might  have  been 
taken  from  Wales;  that  principality  was  never  taxed  by 
parliament  till  it  was  incorp(^rated  with  England.  We  are 
told  of  many  classes  of  persons  in  this  kingdom  not  repre- 
sented in  parliament ;  but  are  they  not  all  virtually  repre- 
sented as  Englishmen  resident  within  the  realm  ?  Have 
they  not  the  option,  many  of  them  at  least,  of  becoming 
themselves  electors  ?  Every  inhabitant  of  this  kingdom  is 
necessarily  included  in  the  general  system  of  representa- 
tion. It  is  a  misfortune  that  more  are  not  actually  repre- 
sented. The  honourable  gentleman  boasts  of  his  bounties 
to  America.  Are  not  these  bounties  intended  finally  for 
the  benefit  of  this  kingdom?  If  they  are  not,  he  has  mis- 
applied the  national  treasures.  I  am  no  courtier  of  Ame- 
rica. I  maintain  that  parliament  has  a  right  to  bind,  to 
restrain  America.  Our  legislative  power  over  the  colo- 
nies is  sovereign  and  supreme.  The  honourable  gentle- 
man tells  us,  he  understands  not  the  difference  between 
internal  and  external  taxation  ;  but  surely  there  is  a  plain 
difference  between  taxes  It  vied  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
a  revenue,  and  duties  imposed  for  the  regulation  of  com- 
merce. When,  said  the  honorable  gentleman,  were  the 
colonies  emancipated  ?  At  what  time,  say  I  in  answer, 
were  they  made  slaves  ?  I  speak  from  accurate  knowledge, 
w^hen  I  say,  that  the  profits  to  Great  Britain  from  the 
trade  of  the  colonies,  through  all  its  branches,  is  two  mil- 
lions per  an.  urn.  This  is  the  fund  which  carried  jou 
triumphantly  through  the  last  war  ;  this  is  the  price  Ame- 
rica pays  you  for  her  protection  ;  and  sh.ill  a  miserable 
financier  come  with  a  boast  that  he  can  fetch  a  pepper-corn 
into  the  exchequer,  at  the  loss  of  millions  to  the  nation?  It 
know  the  valour  of  your  troops;  I  know  the  skill  of  your 
officers ;  I  know  the  force  of  this  country  ;  but  in  such  a 
cause,  your  success  would  be  hazardous,  America,  if  she 
fell,  would  fall  hke  the  strong  man :  she  would  embrnce 
the  pillars  of  the  state,  and  pull  down  the  constitution  with 
her.  Is  this  your  boasted  peace  ?  Not  to  shec=the  the 
sword  in  the  scabbard,  but  to  sheathe  it  in  the  bowels  of 
your  countrymen  ?  The  Americans  have  been  wronged  ; 


SPEAKER.  37 

they  have  been  driven  to  madness  by  injustice.  Will 
you  punish  them  for  the  madness  you  have  occasioned? 
No  J  let  this  country  be  the  first  to  resume  its  prudence 
and  temper.  I  will  pledge  myself  for  the  colonies,  that, 
on  their  part,  animosity  and  resentment  will  cease.  Let 
affection  be  the  only  bond  of  coercion.  The  system  of 
policy  I  would  earnestly  recommend  Gr«  at  Britain  to 
adopt,  in  relation  to  America,  is  happily  expressed  in  the 
words  of  a  favorite  poet : 

"  Be  to  her  faults  a  little  blind, 

*'  Be  to  her  virtues  very  kind ; 

*'  Let  all  her  ways  be  unconfined ; 

**  And  clap  your  Padlock  on  her  mind."        Priok. 

"  Upon  the  whole  I  beg  leave  to  tell  the  house  in  a  few 
words,  what  is  really  my  opinion.  It  is  that  the  stamp  act 
be  repealed— ABSOLUTELY— TOTALLY  and  immediately." 

Lord  Chatham^  in  reply  to  Lord  Mansfield  on  a  motion  and 
address  to  the  King  on  the  state  of  the  nation* — British 
House  of  Lords ^  1770. 

My  Lords, — There  is  one  plain  maxim,  to  which  I 
have  invariably  adhered  through  life  ;  that  m  every  ques- 
\  tion,  in  which  my  liberty  or  my  property  were  concerned, 
I  should  consult  and  be  determined  by  the  dictates  of 
common  sense.  I  confess,  my  lords,  that  I  am  apt  to 
distrust  the  refinements  of  learning,  because  I  have  seen 
the  ablest  and  the  most  learned  men  equally  liable  to  de- 
ceive themselves  and  to  mislead  others.  The  condition 
of  human  nature  would  be  lamentable  indeed,  if  nothing 
less  than  the  greatest  learning  and  talents,  which  fall  to 
the  share  of  so  small  a  number  of  men,  were  sufficient  to 
direct  our  judgment  and  our  conduct.  But  providence 
has  taken  better  care  of  our  happiness,  and  given  us,  in 
the  simplicity  of  common  sense,  a  rule  for  our  direction, 
by  which  we  never  shall  be  misled.  I  confess,  my  lords> 
I  had  no  other  guide  in  drawing  up  the  amendment  wh*^  h 
I  submitted  to  your  Consideration :  and  before  I  heard  the 
opinion  of  the  noble  lord  who  spoke  last,  I  did  not  con- 
ceive, that  it  was  even  within  the  limits  of  possibility  for 
thv  greatest  human  genius,  the  most  subtle  understand  ng, 
or  the  acutest  wit,  so  strangely  to  misrepresent  my  me  m- 
ing,  and  give  it  an  interpretation  so  entirely  foreign  /rom 

E 


38  AMERICAN 

what  I  intended  to  express,  and  from  that  sense  which  the 
very  terms  of  the  amendment  plainly  and  distinctly  carry 
with  them.  If  there  be  the  smallest  foundation  for  the 
censure  thrown  upon  me  by  that  noble  lord  ;  if,  either  ex- 
pressly or  by  the  most  distant  implication,  I  have  said  or 
insinuated  any  p«rt  of  what  the  noble  lord  has  charged 
me  with,  discard  the  opinions  for  ever,  discard  the  motion 
with  contempt. 

My  lords,  I  must  beg  the  indulgence  of  the  house* 
Neither  will  my  health  permit  me,  nor  do  I  pretei  d  to 
be  qualified  to  follow  that  learned  lord  minutely  through 
the  whole  of  his  argument.  No  man  is  better  acquainted 
with  his  abilities  or  his  learning,  nor  has  a  greater  respect 
for  them,  than  I  have.  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  sitting 
with  him  in  the  other  house,  and  always  listened  to  him 
with  attention.  I  have  not  now  lost  a  word  of  what  he 
said,  nor  did  I  ever.  Upon  the  present  question  I  meet 
him  without  fear.  The  evidence  which  truth  carries  with 
It,  is  superior  to  all  argument ;  it  neither  wants  the  sup- 
port, nor  dreads  the  opposition  of  the  greatest  abilities. 
It  there  be  a  single  word  in  the  amendment  to  justify  the 
interpretation  which  the  noble  lord  has  been  pleased  to 
give  it,  I  am  ready  to  renounce  the  whole;  let  it  be  read, 
my  lords  :  let  it  speak  for  itself.  (It  was  read.) — In  what 
instance  does  it  interfere  with  the  privileges  of  the  house 
of  commons  ?  In  what  respect  does  it  question  their  juris- 
diction, or  suppose  an  authority  in  this  house  to  arraign 
the  justice  of  their  sentence  ?  I  am  sure  that  every  lord 
who  hears  me,  will  bear  me  witliess  that  I  said  not  one 
word  touching  the  merits  of  the  Middlesex  election  :  far 
from  conveying  any  opinion  vipon  that  matter  in  the 
amendment,  I  did  not  even  in  discourse  deliver  my  own 
sentiments  upon  it.  I  did  not  say  that  the  house  of  com- 
mons had  done  either  right  or  v.rong :  but  when  his  ma- 
jesty was  pleased  to  recommend  it  to  us  to  cultivate  una- 
nimity among  ourselves,  I  thought  it  the  duty  of  this 
house,  as  ^he  great  hereditary  council  of  the  crown,  to 
state  to  his  majesty  the  distracted  condition  of  his  domi- 
.nions,  together  with  the  events  which  had  destroyed  una- 
nimity among  his  subjects.  But,  my  lords,  I  stated  those 
events  merely  as  facts,  without  the  smallest  addition  either 
of  censwre  or  of  opinion.  They  are  facts,  my  lords,  which 


SPEAKER,  39 

I  am  not  only  convinced  are  true,  but  which  I  know  are 
indisputably  true.  For  example,  my  lords ;  will  any  man 
deny  that  discontents  prevail  in  many  parts  of  his  majes- 
ty's dominions  ?  or  that  those  discontents  arise  from  the 
proceedings  of  the  house  of  commons,  touching  the  de- 
clared incapacity  of  Mr.  Wilkes?  It  is  impossible:  no 
man  can  deny  a  truth  so  notorious,  nor  will  any  man 
deny  that  those  proceedings  refused,  by  a  resolution  of 
one  branch  of  the  legislature  only,  to  the  subject,  his  com- 
mon right.  Is  it  not  indisputably  true,  my  lords,  that  Mr. 
Wilkes  had  a  common  right,  and  that  he  lost  it  no  other 
way  but  by  a  resolution  of  the  house  of  commons  ?  My 
lords,  I  hnve  been  tender  of  misrepresenting  the  house 
of  commons;  I  have  consulted  thfir  journals,  and  have 
taken  every  word  of  their  own  resolution.  Do  they  not 
tell  us,  in  so  many  words,  that  Mr.  Wilkes  having  been 
expelled,  was  thereby  rendered  incapable  of  serving  in 
that  parliament?  And  is  it  not  their  resolution  alone, 
whicli  refuses  to  the  subject  his  common  right?  The 
amendment  says  farther,  that  the  electors  of  Middlesex 
are  deprived  of  their  free  choice  of  a  representative.  Is 
this  a  false  fact,  my  lords  ?  or  have  I  given  an  unfair  I'e- 
presentation  of  it?  Will  any  man  presutne  to  affirm  that 
colonel  Luttrell  is  the  free  choice  of  the  electors  of  Mid- 
dlesex? We  all  know  the  contrary.  We  all  know  ih.it 
Mr.  Wilkes  (whom  I  mention  without  either  praise  or 
censure)  was  the  favourite  of  the  country,  and  chosen, 
by  a  very  great  and  acknowledged  majority,  to  represent 
them  in  parliament.  If  the  noble  lord  dislikes  the  man- 
ner in  which  these  facts  are  stated,  I  shall  think  myself 
happy  in  being  advised  by  him"  how  to  alter  it.  I  am  very 
little  anxious  about  terms,  provided  the  substances  be 
preserved;  and  these  are  facts,  my  lords,  which  I  am 
sure  will  always  retain  their  weight  and  importance,  in 
whatever Torm  of  language  they  are  described. 

Now,  my  lords,  since  I  have  been  forced  to  enter  into 
the  explanation  of  an  amendment,  in  which  nothing  less 
than  the  genius  of  penetration  could  have  discovered  an 
obscurity ;  and  having,  as  I  hope,  redeemed  myself  in  the 
opinion  of  the  house;  having  redeemed  my  motion  from 
the  severe  representation  givv-n  of  it  by  the  noble  lord,  I 
must  a  little  longer  intreat  your  lordships'   indulgence. 


40  AMERICAN 

The  constitution  of  this  country  has  been  openly  invaded 
in  fact ;  and  I  have  heard  with  horror  and  astonishment, 
that  very  invasion  defended  upon  principle.  What  is  this 
mysterious  power,  undefined  by  law,  unknown  to  the  sub- 
ject, which  we  must  not  approach  without  awe,  nor  speak 
oi  without  reverence  ;  which  no  man  may  question,  and  to 
Kvhich  all  men  must  submit?  My  lords,  I  thought  the 
slavish  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  had  long  since  been 
exploded:  and,  when  our  kin^fs  were  obliged  to  confess 
that  their  title  to  the  crown,  and  the  rule  of  their  govern- 
ment, had  no  othe-r  foundation  ihun  the  known  laws  of  the 
land,  I  never  expected  to  hear  a  divine  right,  or  a  divine 
infallibility,  atiributed  to  any  other  branch  of  the  legisla- 
ture. My  lords,  I  beg  to  be  understood :  no  man  re- 
spects the  housfc  of  commons  more  than  1  do,  or  would 
contend  more  strenuously  than  I  would  to  preserve  them 
their  just  and  legal  authority.  Within  the  bounds  pre- 
scribed by  the  constitution,  that  authority  is  necessary  to 
the  v/eli  being  of  the  people;  beyond  that  line  every  exer- 
tion of  power  is  arbitrary,  is  illegal ;  it  threatens  tyranny 
to  the  people,  and  destruction  to  the  state.  Power,  with- 
out right,  is  the  most  odious  and  detestable  object  that 
can  be  offered  to  the  human  imagination  ;  it  is  not  only 
pernicious  to  those  who  are  subject  to  it,  but  tends  to  its 
own  destruction.  It  is  what  my  noble  friend  (lord  Lyt- 
tleton)  has  truly  described  it,  res  detestabilts  et  caduca. 
jNIy  lords,  I  acknowledge  the  just  power,  and  reverence 
the  constitution  of  the  house  of  commons.  It  is  for  their 
own  sake  s  that  I  would  present  their  assuming  a  power 
which  the  constitution  has  denied  them,  lest,  by  grasping 
at  an  authority  they  have  no  right  to,  they  should  forfeit 
that  which  they  legally  possess.  My  lords,  I  uffirm  that 
ihey  have  betrayed  their  constituents,  and  violated  the 
coniititution.  Under  pretence  of  declaring  the  law,  they 
have  made  a  law,  and  united  in  the  si?me  persons  the  of- 
fice of  legislator  and  of  judge.  I  shi>ll  endeavour  to  ad- 
here strictly  to  the  noble  lord's  doctrine,  which  it  is  in- 
deed impossible  to  mistake,  as  far  as  my  memory  will 
permit  me  to  preserve  his  expression.  He  seems  fond  of 
the  word  jurisdiction;  and  1  confess,  with  the  force  and 
effv  ct  which  he  has  given  it,  it  is  a  word  of  copious  mean- 
ing and  wonderful  extent.     If  his  lordship's  doctrine  be 


AMERICAN  4i 

well  founded,  we  must  renounce  all  those  political  max- 
ims by  which  our  understandings  have  hitherto  been 
directed;  and  even  the  first  elements  of  learning  taught 
us  when  we  were  school-boys.  My  lords,  we  know  that 
jurisdiction  was  nothing  more  than  jfus  dicere;  we  know 
that  Legem  facere  and  Legem  dicere  were  powers  clearly 
distinguished  from  each  oth..-r  in  the  nature  of  things,  am 
wisely  separated  by  the  wisdom  of  the  English  constitu- 
tion: but  now,  it  seems,  we  must  adopt  a  new  system  c 
thinking.  Tiie  house  of  commons,  we  are  told,  have  i 
supreme  jurisdiction;  that  there  is  no  appeal  from  their 
sentence;  and  that  whenever  they  are  competent  judges, 
their  decision  must  be  received  and  submitted  to,  as,  ipso 
facto^  the  law  of  the  land.  My  lords,  I  am  a  plain  man, 
and  have  been  brought  up  in  a  religious  reverence  for 
the  original  simplicity  of  the  laws  of  England.  By  what 
sophistry  they  have  been  perverted,  by  what  artifices  they 
have  been  invf^lved  in  obscurity,  is  not  for  me  to  explain; 
the  principles,  however,  of  the  English  laws  are  still  suf- 
ficiently clear;  they  are  founded  in  reason,  and  are  the 
master-piece  of  the  human  understanding;  but  it  is  in  the 
text  that  I  would  look  for  a  direction  to  my  judgment, 
not  in  the  commentaries  of  modern  professors.  The  no- 
ble lord  assures  us,  that  he  knows  not  in  what  code  the 
law  of  parliament  is  to  be  found :  that  the  house  of  com- 
mons, when  they  act  as  judges,  have  no  law  to  direct  them 
but  their  own  wisdom ;  that  their  decision  is  law ;  and  if 
they  determine  wrong,  the  subject  has  no  appeal  but  to 
heaven.  What  then,  my  lords,  are  all  the  generous  efforts 
of  our  ancestors,  are  all  those  glorious  contentions,  by 
which  they  meant  to  secure  to  themselves,  and  to  trans- 
mit to  their  posterity,  a  known  law,  a  certain  rule  of  liv- 
ing, reduced  to  this  conclusion,  that  instead  of  the  arbitra- 
ry power  of  a  king,  we  must  submit  to  the  arbitrary  power 
of  a  house  of  comm  .ns?  If  this  be  true,  what  benefit  da 
we  derive  from  the  exchange  ?  Tyranny,  my  lords,  is  de- 
testable in  every  shape ;  but  in  none  so  formidable  as 
where  it  is  assum^rd  and  exercised  by  a  number  of  tyrants. 
But,  my  lords,  this  is  not  the  fact;  this  is  not  the  consti- 
tution: we  have  a  law  of  parliament,  we  have  a  code  in 
which  every  honest  man  mav  find  it.  Wc;  have  7nagna 
chartOy  we  have  the  statute  book,  and  the  bill  of  rights. 
E2 


42  SPEAKER. 

If  a  case  should  arise  unknown  to  these  great  authori- 
ties, we  have  still  that  plahi  English  reason  left,  which  is 
the  foundation  of  all  our  English  jurisprudence.  That 
reason  tells  us,  that  every  judicial  court,  every  political 
society,  must  be  vested  with  those  powers  and  privileges 
which  are  necessary  for  performing  the  office  to  which 
they  are  appointed.  It  tells  us  also,  that  no  court  of  jus- 
tice can  have  a  power  inconsistent  with,  or  paramount  to 
the  known  laws  of  the  land  j  that  the  people,  when  they 
choose  their  representatives,  never  mean  to  convey  to 
them  a  power  of  invading  their  rights,  or  trampling  upon 
the  liberties  of  those  v.  horn  they  represent.  What  secu- 
rity would  they  have  for  their  rights,  if  once  they  admit- 
ted, that  a  court  of  judicature  might  determine  evefy 
question  that  came  before  it,  not  by  any  known  positive 
law,  but  by  the  vague,  indeterminate,  arbitrary  rule,  of 
what  the  noble  lord  is  pleased  to  call  '  the  wisdom  of  the 
court:'  With  rtspect  to  the  decision  of  the  courts  of  jus- 
tice, I  am  far  from  denying  them  their  due  weight  and  au- 
thority; yet,  placing  them  in  the  most  respectable  view,  I 
still  consider  them,  not  as  law,  but  as  an  evidence  of  the 
law  ;  and  before  they  can  arrive  even  at  that  degree  of  au- 
thority, it  must  appear,  that  they  are  founded  in,  and  con- 
firmed by  reason  ;  that  they  are  supported  by  precedents 
taken  from  good  and  moderate  times ;  that  they  do  not 
contradict  any  positive  law ;  that  they  are  submitted  to 
without  reluctance  by  the  people ;  that  they  are  unques- 
tioned by  the  legislature  (which  is  equivalent  to  a  tacit 
confirmation);  and,  which  in  my  judgment  is  by  far  the 
most  important,  that  they  do  not  violate  the  spirit  of  the 
constitution.  My  lords,  this  is  not  a  vague  or  loose  ex- 
pression ;  we  all  know  what  the  constitution  is ;  we  all 
k'ow,  that  the  first  principle  of  it  is,  that  the  subject  shall 
not  bt  governed  by  the  arbitrium  of  any  one  man  or  body  of 
men  (less  than  the  whole  It  gislature),  but  by  certain  laws, 
to  which  he  has  virtually  given  his  consent,  which  are 
open  to  him  to  examis.e,  and  not  bej  ond  his  ability  to  un- 
derstand. Now,  my  lords,  I  affirm,  and  am  ready  to 
maintain,  that  the  late  decision  of  the  house  of  commons 
upon  the  Middlesex  ekttion,  is  destitute  of  every  one  of 
those  prpperties  and  conditions  which  i  hold  to  be  essen- 
tial to  the  legality  of  such  a  decision.     It  is  not  founded 


SPEAKER.  4^ 

in  reason ;  for  it  carries  with  it  a  contradiction,  that  the 
representative  should  perform  the  office  of  the  constituent 
body.  It  is  not  supported  by  a  single  precedent ;  for  the 
case  of  sir  R.  Walpole  is  but  a  half  precedent,  and  even 
that  half  is  imperfect.  Incapacity  was  indeed  declared  ; 
but  his  crimes  are  stated  as  the  ground  of  the  resolution, 
and  his  opponent  was  declared  not  to  be  duly  elected, 
even  after  his  incapacity  was  established.  It  contradicts 
magna  charta^  and  the  bill  of  rights,  by  which  it  is  pro- 
vided, that  no  subject  shall  be  deprived  of  his  freehold, 
unless  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  the  law  of  the 
land  ;  and  that  election  of  members  to  serve  in  parliament 
shall  be  free  ;  and  so  far  is  this  decision  from  being  sub- 
mitted to  by  the  people,  that  they  have  taken  the  strong- 
est measures,  and  adopted  the  most  positive  language,  to 
express  their  discontent. — Whether  it  will  be  questioned 
by  the  legislature,  will  depend  upon  your  lordship's  reso- 
lution ;  but  that  it  violates  the  spirit  of  the  constitution, 
will,  I  think,  be  disputed  by  no  man  who  has  heard  this 
day's  debate,  and  who  wishes  well  to  the  freedom  of  his 
country  ;  }et,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  noble  lord,  this  great 
grievance^  this  manifest  violation  of  the  first  principles  of 
the  constitution,  will  not  admit  of  a  remedy  ;  is  not  even 
capable  of  redress,  unless  we  appeal  at  once  to  heaven. 
Mv  lords,  I  have  better  hopes  of  the  constitution,  and  a 
firmer  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  constitutional  autho- 
rity of  this  house.  It  is  to  your  ancestors,  my  lords,  it  is 
to  the  English  barons,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  laws 
and  constitution  we  possess.  Their  virtues  were  rude 
and  uncultivated,  but  they  were  great  and  sincere.  Their 
understandings  were  as  little  polished  as  their  manners, 
but  they  had  hearts  to  distinguish  right  from  wrong;  they 
had  heads  to  distinguish  truth  from  falsehood  ;  they  un- 
derstood the  rights  of  humanity,  and  they  had  spirit  to 
maintain  them. 

My  lords,  I  think  that  history  has  not  done  justice  to  their 
conduct,  when  they  obtained  from  their  sovereign  that 
great  acknowledgment  of  national  rights  contained  in 
magna  charta;  they  did  not  confine  it  to  themselves  alone, 
but  delivered  it  as  a  common  l^Jpssing  to  the  whole  peo- 
ple. They  did  not  say,  these  are  the  rights  of  the  great 
barons,  or,  these  are  th'e  rights  of  the  great  prelates :  no. 


U  AMERICAN 

my  lords,  they  said,  in  the  simple  Latin  of  the  times,  7iui' 
lu's  liber  homo^  and  provided  as  carefully  for  the  meanest 
suhjtrct  as  for  the  greatest.  These  are  uncouth  words, 
and  sound  but  poorly  in  the  ears  of  scholars  ;  but  they  are 
dear  to  the  hearts  of  free  men.  These  three  words,  7iul- 
lus  liber  /iowo,  have  a  meaning  which  interests  us  all:  they 
deserve  to  be  remembered — they  deserve  to  be  inculcated 
in  our  minds — they  are  worth  all  the  classics. — Let  us 
not,  then,  degenerate  from  the  glorious  example  of  our  an- 
cestors. Those  iron  barons  (for  so  I  may  call  them,  when 
compared  with  the  silken  barons  of  modern  days)  Were 
the  guardians  of  the  people  ;  yet  their  virtues,  my  lords, 
were  never  engaged  in  a  question  of  such  importance  as 
the  present.  A  breach  has  been  made  in  the  constitution 
— the  battlements  are  dismantled — the  citadel  is  opened 
to  the  first  invader — the  walls  totter — the  constitution  is 
not  tenable.  What  remains,  then,  but  for  us  to  stand  fore- 
most in  the  breach,  to  repair  it,  or  perish  in  it. 

Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  alarm  us  with  the 
dreadful  consequences  of  a  difference  between  the  two 
houses  of  parliament:  that  the  house  of  commons  will 
resent  our  presuming  to  take  notice  of  their  proceedings  : 
that  they  will  resent  our  daring  to  advise  the  crown,  and 
never  forgive  us  for  attempting  to  save  the  state.  My 
lords,  I  am  sensible  of  the  importance  and  difficulty  of 
this  great  crisis :  at  a  moment  such  as  this,  we  are  called 
upon  to  do  our  duty,  without  dreading  the  resentment  of 
any  man.  But  if  apprehensions  of  this  kind  are  to  affect 
us,  let  us  consider  which  we  ought  to  respect  most — ihe 
representati\  e,  or  the  collective  Ijody  of  the  people.  My 
lords,  five  hundred  gentlemen  arc  not  ten  millions  ;  and 
if  we  must  have  a  contention,  let  us  take  care  to  have  the 
English  nation  on  our  side.  If  this  question  be  given  up, 
the  freeholders  of  England  are  reduced  to  a  condition 
baser  than  the  peasantry  of  Poland.  If  they  desert  their 
own  cause,  they  deserve  to  be  slaves  !  My  lords,  this  is 
not  merely  the  cold  opinion  of  my  understanding,  but  the. 
glowing  expression  of  what  I  feel.  It  is  my  heart  that 
speaks.  I  know  I  speak  warmly,'  my  lords,  but  this 
warmth  shall  neithei'  betray  my  argument  nor  my  tem- 
per. The  kingdom  is  in  a  flame  ;  as  mediators  between 
the  king  and  people,  it  is  our  duty  to  represent  to  him  the 


SPEAKER.  45 

true  condition  and  temper  of  his  subjects.  It  is  a  duty 
which  no  particular  respects  should  hinder  us  from  per- 
forming ;  and  whenever  his  majesty  shall  demand  our  ad- 
vice, it  will  then  be  our  duty  to  enquire  more  minutely 
into  the  causes  of  the  present  discontents.  Whenever 
that  enquiry  shall  come  on,  I  pledge  myself  to  the  house 
to  prove,  that  since  the  first  institution  of  the  house  of 
commons,  not  a  smgle  precedent  can  be  produced  to  jus- 
tify their  late  proceedings.  My  noble  and  learned  friend, 
(the  lord  Chancellor)  has  also  pledged  himself  to  the 
house,  that  he  will  support  that  assertion. 

My  lords,  the  character  and  circumstances  of  Mr. 
Wilkes  have  been  very  improperly  introduced  into  this 
question,  not  only  here,  but  in  that  court  of  judicature 
where  his  cause  was  tried: — I  mean  the  house  of  com- 
mons. With  one  party  he  was  a  patriot  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude: with  thfe  other,  the  vilest  incendiary.  For  my 
own  part,  I  consider  him  merely  and  indifferently  as  an 
English  subject,  possessed  of  certain  rights  which  the 
laws  have  given  him,  and  which  the  laws  alone  can  take 
from  him.  I  am  neither  moved  by  his  private  vices,  nor 
by  his  public  merits.  In  his  person,  though  he  were  the 
worst  of  men,  I  contend  for  the  safety  and  security  of  the 
best ;  and  God  forbid,  my  lords,  that  there  should  be  z 
power  in  this  country  of  measuring  the  civil  rights  of  the 
subject  by  his  moral  character,  or  by  any  other  rule  but 
thi;  fixed  laws  of  the  land.  I  believe,  my  lords,  I  shall 
not  be  suspected  of  any  personal  partiality  to  this  unhappy 
man  :  I  am  not  very  conversant  in  pamphlets  or  newspa- 
pers ;  but  from  what  I  have  heard,  and  from  the  little  I 
have  read,  I  may  venture  to  afiirm,  that  I  have  had  my 
share  in  the  compliments  which  have  come  from  that  quar- 
ter: and  as  for  motives  of  ambition  (for  I  must  take  to  my- 
self a  part  of  the  noble  duke's  insinuation,)  I  believe,  my 
lords,  there  have  been  tunes  in  which  I  have  had  the  hon- 
our of  standing  in  such  favour  in  the  close^that  there 
must  have  been  something  extravagantly  unreai^nable  in 
my  wishes,  if  they  might  not  at  all  have  been  gratified. 
After  neglecting  those  opportunities,  I  am  now  suspected 
of  coming  forward  in  the  decline  of  life,  in  the  anxious 
pursuit  of  wealth  and  power,  which  it  is  impossible  for 
me  to  enjoy.     Be  it  so :  there  is  one  ambition,  at  least. 


46  AMERICAN 

which  I  ever  will  acknowledge,  which  I  will  not  renounce 
but  with  my  life.  It  is  the  ambition  of  delivering  to  my 
posterity  those  rights  of  freedom  which  1  have  received 
from  my  ancestors.  I  am  not  now  pleading  the  cause  of 
an  individual,  but  of  every  freeholder  in  England.  In 
what  manner  this  house  may  constitutionally  interpose  in 
their  defence,  and  what  kind  of  redress  this  case  will  re- 
quire and  admit  of,  is  not  at  present  the  subject  of  our 
consideration.  The  amendment,  if  agreed  to,  will  natu- 
rally lead  us  to  such  an  enquiry.  That  enquiry,  may 
perhaps,  point  o^ut  the  necessity  of  an  act  of  the  "legisla- 
ture, or  It  may  lead  us,  perhaps,  to  desire  a  conference  with 
the  other  house  ;  which  one  noble  lord  affirms,  is  the  only 
parliamentary  way  of  proceeding;  and  which  another  no- 
ble lord  assures  us  the  house  of  commons  would  either  not 
come  to.  or  would  break  off  with  indignation.  Leaving 
their  lordships  to  reconcile  that  matter*  between  them- 
selves, I  shall  only  sa} ,  that  before  we  have  enquired,  we 
cannot  be  provided  with  materials  ;  c-onsequently,  at  pre- 
sent we  are  not  prepared  for  a  conference. 

It  is  possible,  my  lords,  that  the  enquiry  I  speak  of  may 
lead  us  to  advice  his  majesty  to  dissolve  the  present  par- 
liament; nor  have  I  any  doubt  of  our  right  to  give  that 
advice,  if  we  should  think  it  necessary.  His  majesty  will 
then  determine  whether  he  will  yield  to  the  united  peti- 
tions of  the  people  of  England,  or  maintain  the  house  of 
commons  in  the  exercise  of  a  legislative  power,  which 
heretofore  abolished  the  house  of  lords,  and  overturned 
the  monarchy.  I  willingly  acquit  the  present  house  of 
commons  of  having  actually  formed  so  detestable  a  de- 
sign :  but  they  cannot  themselves  foresee  to  what  excesses 
they  may  be  carried  hereafter :  and  for  my  own  part,  I 
should  be  sorry  to  trust  to  their  future  moderation.  Un- 
limited power  is  apt  to  corrupt  the  minds  of  those  who 
possess  it;  and  this  I  know,  my  lords,  that  where  lav/ 
ends,  tyranny  begins ! 

Lor  a  Chatham  on  the  State  of  the  Nation, — 1770. 

My  lords, — I  shall  give  you  my  reasons  for  concurring 
with  the  motion,  not  methodically,  but  as  they  occur  to 
my  mind.  I  may  wander,  perhaps,  froAi  the  exact  par- 
liamentary debate  ;  but  I  hope  I  shall  say  nothing  but 


SPEAKER.  47 

what  may  deserve  your  attention,  and  what  if  not  strictly 
proper  at  present,  would  be  fit  to  be  said,  wht-n  the  state 
of  the  nation  shall  come  to  be  considered.  My  uncertain 
state  of  health  must  plead  my  excuse.  I  am  now  in  some 
paini  and  very  probably  may  not  be  able  to  attend  my 
duty  when  I  desire  it  most  in  this  house.  I  thank  God, 
my  lords,  for  having  thus  long  preserved  so  inconsiderable 
a  being  as  I  am,  to  take  a  part  upon  this  great  occasion, 
and  to  contribute  my  endeavours,  such  as  they  are,  to  re- 
store, to  save,  to  confirm  the  constitution.  My  lords,  I 
need  not  look  abroad  for  grievances.  The  grand  capital 
mischief  is  fixed  at  home.  It  corrupts  the  very  founda- 
tion of  our  political  existence,  and  prej's  upon  the  vitals  of 

the  state.     The  constitution  has  been  grossly  violated. 

The  constitution  at  this  moment  stands  violated; 
Until  that  wound  be  healed,  until  the  grievance  be  re- 
dressed, it  is  in  vain  to  recommend  union  to  parliament 

in  vain  to  promote  concord  among  the  people.  If  we 
mean  seriously  to  unite  the  nation  within  itself,  we  must 
convince  them  that  their  complaints  are  regarded,  and  that 
their  enquiries  shall  be  answered.  On  that  foundation,  I 
would  take  the  lead  in  recommending  peace  and  harmony 
to  the  people:  on  any  other,  I  would  never  wish  to  see 
them  united  again.  If  the  breach  in  the  constitution  be 
effectually  repaired,  the  people  will  of  thems  .Ives  return 
to  a  state  of  trariquillity  :  if  not,  may  discord  prevail 
FOR  EVER  !  I  know  to  what  point  this  doctrme  and  this 
language  will  appear  directed.  But  I  feel  the  principles 
of  an  Englishman,  and  I  utter  them,  without  apprehension 
or  reserve.  The  crisis  is  indeed  alarming;  so  much  the 
more  does  it  n  quire  a  prudent  relaxation  on  the  part  of 
government.  If  the  king's  servants  will  not  permit  a  con- 
stitutional question  to  be  decided  on  according  to  the 
forms  and  on  the  principles  of  the  constitution,  it  must 
then  be  decided  in  some  other  manner:  and  rather  than  it 
should  be  given  up,  rather  than  the  nation  should  surren- 
der their  birthri;^ht  to  a  despotic  minister,  I  hope,  my 
lords,  old  as  I  am,  I  shall  see  the  question  brought  to  is- 
sue, and  fairly  tried  between  the  people  and  government. 
My  lords,  this  is  not  the  language  of  faction.  Let  it  be 
tried  by  that  criterion  by  which  alone  we  can  distinguish 
what  is  factious  from  what  is  not — by  the  principles  of  the 


r 


48  AMERICAN 

English  constitution.  I  have  been  bred  up  in  these  prin- 
ciples, and  know  that  when  the  liberty  of  the  subject  is  in- 
vaded, and  all  redress  denied  him,  resistance  is  justified. 
If  I  had  a  doubt  upon  the  matter,  I  should  follow  the  ex- 
ample set  us  by  the  most  reverend  bench  ;  with  whom  I 
believe  it  is  a  maxim,  when  any  doubt  in  point  of  faith 
arises,  or  any  question  of  controversy  is  started,  to  appeal 
at  once  to  the  greatest  source  and  evidence  of  our  religion 
- — I  mean  the  Holy  Bible.  The  constitution  has  its  poli- 
tical bible,  by  which,  if  it  be  fairly  consulted,  every  politi- 
cal question  may,  and  ought  to  be  determined.  Magna 
Charta^  the  petition  of  rights,  and  the  bill  of  rights,  form 
that  code  which  I  call  the  bible  of  the  English  constitu- 
tion. Had  some  of  his  majesty's  unhappy  predecessors 
trusted  less  to  the  comments  of  their  ministers,  had  they 
been  better  read  in  the  text  itself,  the  glorious  revolution 
would  have  remained  only  possible  in  theory,  and  Would 
not  now  have  existed  upon  record — a  formidable  example 
to  their  successors. 

My  lords,  the  condition  of  his  majesty's  affairs  in  Ire- 
land, and  the  state  of  that  kingdom  within  itself,  will  un- 
doiibtedly  make  a  very  material  part  of  your  lordship's 
enquiry.  I  am  not  sufficiently  informed  to  enter  into  the 
subject  so  fully  as  I  could  wish,  but  from  what  appears  to 
the  public  and  my  own  observation,  I  confess  I  cannot 
give  the  ministry  much  credit  for  the  spirit  of  prudence 
of  their  conduct.  I  see  that  where  their  measures  are 
well  chosen,  they  are  incapable  of  carrying  them  through 
without  some  unhappy  mixture  of  weakness  or  impru- 
dence. They  are  incapable  of  doing  entirely  right.  My 
lords,  I  do  from  my  conscience,  and  from  the  best  weigh-» 
cd  principles  of  my  understanding,  applaud  the  augmenta- 
tion of  the  army.  As  a  military  plan,  I  believe  it  has 
been  judiciously  arranged.  In  a  political  view,  I  am  con- 
vinced it  was  for  the  welfare,  for  the  safety  of  the  whole 
empire.  But,  my  lords,  with  all  these  advantages,  with 
all  these  recommendations,  if  I  had  the  honour  of  advis- 
ing his  majesty,  I  would  never  have  consented  to  his  ac- 
cepting the  augmentation  with  that  absurd,  dishonourable 
condition  which  the  ministry  have  submitted  to  annex  to 
it.  Mv  lords,  I  revere  that  just  prerogative  of  the  crown, 
and  would  contend  for  it  as  warmly  as  for  the  rights  of 


SPEAKER.  49 

the  people.  They  are  linked  together,  and  naturally  sup- 
port each  other.  I  would  not  touch  a  feath' r  of  the  pre- 
rogative. The  expression  perhaps  is  too  light ;  but  since 
I  have  made  use  of  it,  let  me  add,  that  the  entire  com- 
mand and  power  of  directing  the  local  disposition  of  the 
army,  is  to  the  royal  prerogative  as  the  master  feather  in 
the  eagle's  wing :  and  if  I  were  permitted  to  carry  the 
allusion  a  little  farther,  I  would  say,  they  have  disarm  .'d 
the  imperial  bird,  the  "  ministrum  fubninis  alitem^^  The 
army  is  the  thunder  of  the  crown.  The  ministry  have 
tied  up  the  hand  which  should  direct  the  bolt. 

My  lords,  I  remember  that  Minorca  ^  as  lost  for  want 
of  four  battalions :  they  could  not  be  spared  from  hence, 
and  there  was  a  delicacy  about  taking  them  from  Ireland. 
I  was  one  of  those  who  promoted  an  enquiry  into  that 
matter  in  the  other  house  ;  and  I  was  convinced  we  h  id 
not  regular  troops  sufficient  for  the  necessary  service  of 
the  nation.  Since  the  moment  the  plan  of  augmentation 
■was  first  talked  of,  I  have  constantly  and  warmly  support- 
ed it  among  my  friends  ;  I  have  recommended  it  to  several 
members  of  thelrishhouseof  commons, and  exhorted  them 
to  support  it  with  their  utmost  interest  in  parliament.  I  did 
not  foresee,  nor  could  I  conceive  it  possible,  the  ministry 
wouid  accept  of  it,  with  a  condition  that  makes  the  plan 
itself  ineffectual,  and,  as  far  as  it  operates,  defeats  every 
useful  purpose  of  maintaining  a  standing  military  force. 
His  majesty  is  now  so  confined  with  his  promise,  that  he 
must  leave  twelve  thousand  men  locked  up  in  Ireland,  let 
the  situation  of  his  affairs  abroad,  or  the  approach  of  dan- 
ger to  this  country,  be  ever  so  alarming,  unless  there  be  an 
actual  rebellion  or  invasion  in  Great  Britain.  Even  in  the 
two  cases  excepted  by  the  king's  promise,  the  mischief 
must  have  already  begun  to  operate,  must  have  already 
taken  effect,  before  his  majesty  can  be  authorised  to  send 
for  the  assistance  of  his  Irish  army.  He  has  not  left  him- 
self the  power  of  taking  any  preventive  measures  ;  let  his 
intelligence  be  ever  so  certain,  let  his  apprehensions  of  in- 
vasion or  rebellion  be  ever  so  well  founded  ;  unless  the 
traitor  be  actually  in  arms,  unless  the  enemy  be  in  the 
heart  of  your  country,  he  cannot  move  a  single  man  from 
Ireland. 


1 


50  AMERICAN 

I  feel  myself  compelled,  my  lords,  to  return  to  that  sub- 
ject which  occupies  and  interests  me  most — I  mean  the 
internal  disorder  of  the  constitution,  and  the  remedy  it  de- 
mands.  But  first,  I  would  observe,  there  is  one  point 
upon  which  1  think  the  noble  duke  has  not  explained  him- 
self. I  do  not  mean  to  catch  at  words,  but  if  possible  to 
possess  the  sense  of  what  I  hear.  I  would  treat  every 
man  with  candour,  and  should  expect  the  same  candour  in 
return.  For  the  noble  duke,  in  particular,  I  have  every 
personal  respect  and  regard.  I  never  desire  to  understand 
him  but  as  he  wishes  to  be  understood.  His  grace.  I 
think,  has  laid  much  stress  upon  the  diligence  of  the  seve- 
ral public  offices,  and  the  assistance  given  them  by  the  ad- 
ministration, in  preparing  a  state  of  the  expences  of  his 
majesty's  civil  government,  for  the  information  of  parlia- 
ment, and  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  public.  He  has  given 
us  a  number  of  plausible  reasons  for  their  not  having  yet 
been  able  to  finish  the  account ;  but  as  far  as  I  am  able  to 
recollect,  he  has  not  yet  given  us  the  smallest  reason  to 
hope  that  it  ever  will  be  finished,  or  that  it  ever  will  be 
laid  before  parliament. 

My  lords,  I  am  not  unpractised  in  business  ;  and  if  with 
all  that  apparent  diligence,  and  all  that  assistance  which 
the  noble  duke  speaks  of,  the  accounts  in  question  have 
not  yet  been  made  up,  I  am  convinced  there  must  be  a 
defect  in  some  of  the  public  offices,  which  ought  strictly 
to  be  enquired  into,  and  severely  punished.  But  my  lords, 
the  waste  of  the  public  money,  is  not  of  itself  so  import- 
ant as  the  ptrnicious  purpose  to  which  we  have  reason  to 
suspect  that  money  has  been  applied.  For  some  years 
past,  there  has  been  an  influx  of  wealth  into  this  country, 
which  has  been  attended  with  many  fatal  consequences ; 
because  it  has  not  been  the  regular,  natural  produce  of  labour 
ard  industry.  The  riches  of  Asia  have  been  poured  in 
^.^pon  us,  and  have  brought  with  them  not  only  Asiatic 
luxury,  but  I  fear  Asiatic  principles  of  government. 
Without  connections,  without  any  natural  interest  in  the 
soil,  the  importers  of  foreign  gold  have  forced  their  way 
into  parliament,  by  such  a  torrent  of  private  corruption  as 
i;o  private  hereditary  fortune  could  resist.  My  lords,  I 
s  y  nothing  but  what  is  within  the  knowledge  of  us  all. 
iiio  corruption  of  the  people  is  the  great  original  cause  oi 


SPEAKER.  51 

the  discontents  of  the  people  themselves,  of  the  enter- 
prises of  the  crown,  and  the  notorious  decay  of  the  inter- 
nal vigour  of  the  constitution.  For  this  great  evil  some 
immediflte  remedy  must  be  provided:  and  I  confess,  my 
lords,  I  did  hope  that  his  majesty's  servants  would  not 
have  suffered  so  many  years  of  peace  to  elapse  without 
paying  some  attention  to  an  object  which  ought  to  engage 
and  interest  us  all.  I  flattered  myself  I  should  see  some 
barriers  thrown  up  in  defence  of  the  constitution,  some 
impediment  formed  to  stop  the  rapid  progress  of  corrup- 
tion. I  doubt  not  we  all  agree  that  something  must  be 
done.  I  shall  offer  my  own  thoughts,  such  as  tht- y  are,  to 
the  consideration  of  the  house  ;  and  I  wish  that  every  no- 
ble lord  who  hears  me  would  be  as  ready  as  I  am  to  con- 
tribute his  opinion  to  this  important  service.  I  will  not 
call  my  own  sentiments  crude  and  indigested  :  it  would  be 
unfit  for  me  to  off^r  any  thing  to  your  lordships  which  I 
had  not  well  considered  ;  and  this  subject,  I  own,  has  long 
occupied  my  thoughts.  I  will  now  give  them  to  your 
lordships  without  reserve.  Whoever  understands  the 
theory  of  the  English  constitution,  and  will  compare  it 
with  the  fact,  must  see  at  once  how  widely  they  differ. 
We  must  reconcile  them  to  each  other,  if  we  wish  to  save 
the  liberties  of  this  country.  We  must  reduce  our  politi- 
cal practice  as  nearly  as  possible  to  our  political  principles. 
The  constitution  intended  that  there  should  be  a  perma- 
nent relation  between  the  constituent  and  representative 
body  of  the  people.  Will  any  man  affirm  that  as  the 
house  of  commons  is  now  formed,  that  relation  is  in  any 
degree  preserved  ?  My  lords,  it  is  not  preserved  :  it  is  de- 
tiroyed.  Let  us  be  cautious,  however,  how  we  have  re- 
course to  violent  expedients. 

The  boroughs  of  this  country  have  properly  enough 
been  called  the  rotten  parts  of  the  constitution.  I  have 
lived  in  Cornw-all,  and  without  entering  into  an  invidious 
particularity,  have  seen  enough  to  justify  the  appellation. 
But  in  my  judgment,  my  lords,  these  boroughs,  corrupt 
as  they  are,  must  be  considered  as  the  natural  infirmity  of 
the  constitution.  Like  the  infirmities  of  the  body,  we 
must  bear  them  in  patience,  and  submit  to  carry  them 
about  with  us.  The  limb  is  mortified,  but  the  amputation 
might  be  death. 

-Let  us  try,  my  lords,  whether  some  gentle  remedies 


52  AMERICAN 

may  not  be  discovered.  Since  we  cannot  cure  the  disor= 
der,  let  us  endeavour  to  infuse  such  a  portion  of  new 
health  into  the  constitution  as  may  enable  it  to  support  its 
most  inveterate  diseases. 

The  represeiitation  of  the  counties  is,  I  think,  still  pre- 
serve d  pure  and  uncorrupted.  That  of  die  great  cities  is 
upon  a  fooling  equally  respectable  ;  and  there  are  many  of 
the  larger  trading  towns,  which  still  preserve  their  inde- 
pendence. The  inlus  on  of  health  which  I  now  allude  to, 
\v  uld  be  to  permit  evt  ry  county  to  elect  one  member  more 
ir  addition  to  their  present  representation.  The  knights 
of  the  shires  approach  nearest  to  the  v.onstitutional  repre- 
sentation of  the  country,  because  they  represent  the  soil. 
It  is  not  the  little  dependent  boroughs,  it  is  in  the  great 
cities  and  counti's  that  the  strength  and  vigour  of  the  con- 
stitution resides,  and  by  thtm  alone,  if  an  unhappy  ques- 
t'um  should  ever  arise,  will  the  constitution  be  honestly  and 
firn^iy  defended.  I  would  encrease  that  strength,  because 
I  think  it  is  the  onh  security  we  have  against  the  profliga- 
cy of  the  times,  the  corruption  of  the  people,  and  the  am- 
bition of  ihe  crown. 

I  thii.k  I  have  weighed  every  possible  objection  that 
can  be  raised  against  a  plan  of  this  nature  ;  and  I  confess 
I  see  but  one  which  to  me  carries  any  appearance  of  soli- 
dity. It  may  be  said,  perhaps,  that  when  the  act  passed 
for  uniting  the  two  kingdoms,  the  number  of  persons  who 
were  to  represent  the  whole  nation  in  parliament  was  pro- 
portioned and  fixed  on  for  ever — that  the  limitation  is  a 
fundamental  article,  and  cannot  be  altered  without  hazard- 
ing a  dissolution  of  the  union. 

My  lords,  no  man  who  hears  me  can  have  a  greater  re- 
verence for  that  V  ise  and  important  act  than  I  have.  I 
revere  the  memory  of  that  great  prince  who  first  formed 
the  plan,  and  of  those  illustrious  patriots  who  carried  it 
into  execution.  As  a  contract,  every  article  of  it  should 
be  inviolable.  As  the  common  basis  of  the  strength  and 
happiness  of  two  nations,  every  article  of  it  should  be 
sacred.  I  hope  1  cannot  be  suspected  of  conceiving  a 
thought  so  detestable,  as  to  propose  an  advantage  to  one 
of  the  contracting  parties,  at  the  expence  of  the  other* 
No,  my  lords,  I  mean  that  the  benefit  should  be  universal, 
and  the  consent  to  receive  it  unanimous.  Nothing  less 
than  a  most  urgent  and  important  occasion  should  per- 


SPEAKER,  53 

suade  me  to  varv  even  from  the  letter  of  the  act ;  but 
there  is  no  occasion,  however  urgmt,  however  import- 
ant, that  should  ever  induce  me  to  d-  p  -rt  from  the  spirit 
of  it.  Let  that  spirit  be  religiously  preserved.  Let  us 
follow  the  principle  upon  which  the  representation  of  the 
two  countries  was  proportioned  at  the  union  ;  and  when 
we  increase  the  number  of  representatives  for  the  Eng- 
lish counties,  let  the  shires  of  Scotland  be  allowed  an  equal 
privilege.  On  these  terms,  and  while  the  proportion 
limited  by  the  union  is  preserved  between  the  two  nations, 
I  apprehend  that  no  man,  who  is  a  friend  to  either^  will 
object  to  an  alteration,  so  necessary  for  the  security  of 
both.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  authority  of  the  legislature 
to  carry  such  a  measure  into  effect,  because  T  imagine  no 
man  will  dispute  it.  But  I  would  not  wish  the  legislature 
to  interpose  by  an  exertion  of  its  power  alone,  without  the 
cheerful  concurrence  of  all  parties.  My  object  is  the 
happine^is  and  security  of  the  two  nations,  and  I  would 
not  wish  to  obtain  it  without  their  mutual  consent. 

My  lords,  besides  my  warm  approbation  of  the  motion 
made  by  the  no!)le  lord,  I  have  a  particular  and  personal 
pleasure  in  rising  up  to  second  it.  I  consider  my  second- 
ing his  lordship's  motion,  and  I  would  wish  it  to  be  con- 
sidered by  others,  as  a  public  demonstration  of  that  cor- 
dial union  which  I  am  happy  to  afilrni  subsists  between  us 
— of  ray  attachment  to  those  principles  which  he  has  so 
well  defended,  and  of  my  respect  for  his  person.  There 
has  been  a  time,  my  lords,  when  those  who  wished  well 
to  neither  of  us,  who  wished  to  see  us  separated  for  ever, 
found  a  sufficient  gratification  for  their  milignity  against 
us  both.  But  that  time  is  happily  at  an  end.  The  friends 
of  this  country  will,  I  doubt  not,  hear  w-ith  pleasure,  that 
the  noble  lord  and  his  friends  are 'now  united  with  me 
and  mine,  upon  a  principle  which  I  trust  will  make  our 
union  indissoluble.  It  is  not  to  possess,  or  divide,  the 
emoluments  of  government;  but,  if  possible,  to  save  the 
state.  Upon  this  ground  wj  met — upon  this  ground  we 
stand,  firm  and  inseparable.  No  ministerial  artifices,  no 
private  offers,  no  secret  seduction,  can  divide  us.  United 
as  we  are,  we  can  set  the  profoundest  policy  of  the  present 
ministry  tht-ir  grand,  their  only  arcanum  of  government, 
their  divide  ct  impera^  at  defiance. 

F  ?. 


54  AMERICAN 

I  hope,  an  early  day  will  be  agreed  to  for  considering 
the  state  of  the  nation.  My  infirmities  must  fidl  heavily 
upon  me,  indeed,  if  I  do  not  attend  my  duties  that  day. 
When  I  consider  my  age  and  unhippv  state  ot"  health,  I 
feel  how  little  1  am  personally  interested  in  the  event  of 
any  political  question.  But  I  look  forward  to  others,  and 
am  determined  as  far  as  my  poor  ability  extends,  to  con- 
vey to  those  who  come  after  me,  the  blessings  which  I 
cannot  long  hope  to  enjoy  myself. 

Lord  MansfidcPs  Speech  in  the  Home  of  Lords ^  1770,  on 
the  Bill  for  preventing  the  Delays  of  Justice^  by  claim- 
ing the  Privilege  of  Parliament. 

"  My  lords, — When  I  consider  the  importance  of  this 
bill  to  \our  lordships,  I  am  not  surprised  it  has  taken  up 
so  much  of  your  consideration.  It  is  a  bill,  indeed,  of  no 
common  magnitude  ;  it  is  no  less  than  to  take  away  from 
two-thirds  of  the  legislative  body  of  this  great  kingdom, 
certain  privileges  and  immunities  of  whichthey  have  been 
long  possessed.  Perhaps  there  is  no  situation  the  human 
miiui  can  be  placed  in,  that  is  so  difficult  and  so  trying,  as 
when  it  is  made  a  judge  in  its  own  cause.  There  is  some- 
th'i'ig  implanted  in  the  breast  of  man  so  attached  to  self,  so 
tenacious  of  privileges  once  obtained,  that,  in  such  a  situa- 
tion, either  to  discuss  with  impartiality,  or  decide  with 
justice,  has  ever  been  held  the  summit  of  all  human  vir- 
tue. The  bill  now  in  question  puts  your  lordships  in  this 
very  predicament ;  and  I  doubt  not  but  the  wisdom  of 
your  decision  will  convince  the  world,  that  where  self-in- 
terest and  justice  are  in  opposite  scales,  the  latter  will 
ever  preponderate  with  your  lordships. 

Privileges  have  been  granted  to  legislators  in  all  ages, 
and  in  all  countries.  The  practice  is  founded  in  wisdom  ; 
and,  indeed,  it  is  peculiarly  essential  to  the  constitution  of 
this  country,  that  the  members  of  both  houses  should  be 
free  in  their  persons,  in  cases  of  civil  suits:  for  there  may 
come  a  time  when  the  safety  tuid  welfare  of  this  whole  em- 
pire, may  depend  upon  their  attendance  in  parliament.  I 
am  far  from  advising  any  measure  that  would  in  future  en- 
danger the  state :  but  the  bill  before  your  lordships  has,  I 
am  confident,  no  such  tendency;  for  it  expressly  secures 
the  persons  of  members  of  either  House  in  all  civil  suits. 


SPEAKER. 

I^is  being  the  case,  I  confess,  when  I  see  many  noble 
lords,  for  whose  judgment  I  have  a  very  great  respect, 
standing  up  to  oppose  a  bill  which  is  calculated  merely  to 
facilitate  the  recovery  of  just  and  legal  debts,  I  am  aston- 
ished and  amazed.  They,  I  doubt  not,  oppose  the  bill 
upon  public  principles:  I  would  not  v/ish  to  insinuate, 
that  private  interest  had  the  least  weight  in  their  determi- 
nation. 

The  bill  has  been  frequently  proposed,  and  as  frequent- 
ly has  miscarried  :  but  it  was  always  lost  in  the  Lower 
House.  Little  did  I  think,  when  it  had  passed  the  Com- 
mons, that  it  possibly  could  have  met  with  such  opposi- 
tion here.  Shall  it  be  said,  that  you,  my  lords,  the  grand 
council  of  the  nation,  the  highest  judicial  and  legislative 
body  of  the  realm,  endeavour  to  evade,  by  privilege,  those 
very  laws  which  you  enforce  on  your  fellow-subjects  ? 
Forbid  it  Justice  ! — I  am  sure,  were  the  noble  lords  as 
well  acquainted  as  I  am,  with  but  half  the  difficulties  and 
delays  occasioned  in  the  courts  of  justice,  under  pretence 
of  privilege,  they  would  not,  nay  they  could  not,  oppose 
this  bill. 

I  have  waited  with  patience  to  hear  what  arguments 
might  be  urged  against  the  bill ;  but  I  have  w«ited  in 
vain  :  the  truth  is,  there  is  no  argument  that  can  weigh 
against  it.  The  justice  and  expediency  of  the  bill  are 
such  as  render  it  self-evident.  It  is  a  proposition  of  that 
nature,  that  can  neither  be  weakened  by  argument,  nor 
entangled  with  sophistry.  Much,  indeed,  has  been  said  by 
some  noble  lords,  on  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors,  and 
how  diiTerently  they  thought  from  us.  They  not  only  de- 
creed, that  privilege  should  prevent  all  civil  suits  from 
proceeding  during  the  sitting  of  parliament,  but  likewise 
granted  protection  to  the  very  servants  of  members.  I 
shall  sny  nothing  on  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors;  it  might 
perhaps  appear  invidious  ;  that  is  not  necessary  in  the 
present  case.  I  shall  only  say,  that  the  no!)le  lords  who 
flatter  themselves  with  the  weight  of  that  reflection,  should 
remember,  that  as  circumstances  alter,  things  themselves 
should  alter.  Formerly,  it  was  not  so  fashionable  either 
for  masters  or  servants  to  run  in  debt,  as  it  is  at  present. 
Foimerly,  we  were  not  that  great  commercial  nation  we 
are  at  present ;  nor  formerly  were  merchants  and  manu- 


S6  AMERICAN 

facturers  members  of  parliament,  as  at  present.  The  case 
is  now  very  different :  both  merchants  and  manufacturers 
are,  with  great  propriety,  electt  d  members  of  the  Lower 
House.  Commerce  having  thus  got  into  the  legislative 
body  of  the  kingdom,  privilege  must  be  done  away.  We 
all  know,  that  the  very  soul  and  essence  of  trade  are  re* 
gular  payments  :  and  sad  experience  teaches  us,  that  there 
are  m.en,  who  will  not  make  their  regular  payments  with- 
out the  compulsive  power  of  the  laws.  The  law  then 
ought  to  be  equally  open  to  all.  Any  exemption  to  parti- 
cular men,  or  particular  ranks  of  men,  is,  in  a  free  and 
commercial  country,  a  solecism  of  the  grossest  nature. 

But  I  will  not  trouble  your  lordships  with  arguments 
for  that,  which  is  sufficiently  evident  without  any.  I  shall 
only  say  a  few  words  to  some  noble  lords,  who  foresee 
much  inconveniency,  from  the  persons  of  their  servants 
being  liable  to  be  arrested.  One  noble  lord  observes^ 
That  the  coachman  of  a  peer  may  be  arrested,  while  he  is 
driving  his  master  to  the  House,  and  that,  consequently, 
he  will  not  be  able  to  attend  his  duty  in  parliament.  If 
this  were  actually  to  happen,  there  are  so  many  methods 
by  which  the  member  might  still  get  to  the  House,  that 
I  can  hardly  think  the  noble  lord  is  serious  in  his  objec- 
tion. Another  noble  peer  said,  That,  by  this  bill,  one 
might  lose  his  most  valuable  and  honest  servants.  This 
I  hold  to  be  a  contradiction  in  terms  :  for  he  can  neither 
be  a  valuable  servant,  nor  an  honest  man,  who  gets  into 
debt  which  he  is  neither  able  nor  willing  to  pay,  till  com- 
pelled by  the  law.  If  my  servant,  by  unforeseen  accidents, 
has  got  into  debt,  and  1  still  wish  to  retain  him,  I  certainly 
would  pay  the  demand.  But  upon  no  principle  of  liberal 
legislation  whatever,  can  my  servant  have  a  title  to  set  his 
creditors  at  defiance,  while  for  forty  shillings  only,  the 
honest  tradesman  maybe  torn  from  his  family, and  locked 
up  in  a  jail.  It  is  monstrous  injustice  !  I  flatter  myself^ 
however,  the  determination  of  this  day  will  entirely  put 
an  end  to  all  such  partial  proceedings  for  the  future,  by 
passing  into  a  law  the  bill  now  under  your  lordship's  con- 
sideration. 

"  I  come  now  to  speak  upon  what,  indeed,  I  woulcj 
have  gladly  avoided,  had  I  not  been  particularly  pointed 
at,  for  the  part  I  have  taken  in  this  bill.    It  has  been  said 


SPEAKER.  57 

by  a  noble  lord  on- my  left  hand,  that  I  likewise  am  run- 
ning the  race  of  popularity.  If  the  noble  lord  means  by 
popularity,  that  applause  bestowed  by  after- ages  on  good 
and  virtuous  actions,  I  have  long  been  struggling  in  that 
race :  to  what  purpose,  all-trymg  Time  can  alcne  deter- 
mine. But  if  the  noble  lord  means  that  mushroom  popu- 
larity, which  is  raised  without  merit,  and  lost  without  a 
crimt ,  he  is  much  mistaken  in  his  opinion.  I  defy  the 
noble  lord  to  point  out  a  single  action  in  my  life,  in  which 
the  popularity  of  the  times  ever  had  the  smallest  influence 
on  my  determinations.  I  thank  God  I  have  a  more  per- 
manent and  steady  rule  for  my  conduct, — the  dictates  of 
my  own  breast.  They  who  have  foregone  that  pleasmg 
adviser,  and  given  up  their  mind  to  be  the  slave  of  every 
popular  impulse,  I  smcerely  pity  .  I  pity  them  still  more, 
if  their  vanity  leads  them  to  mistake  the  shouts  of  a  mob 
for  the  trumpet  of  fame.  Experience  might  inform  them 
that  many,  who  have  been  saluted  with  the  huzzas  of  a 
crowd  one  day,  hvve  received  their  execrations  the  next; 
and  many,  who,  by  the  popularity  of  their  times,  have 
been  held  up  as  spodess  patriots,  have,  nevertheless,  ap- 
peared upon  the  historian's  page,  when  truth  his  triumph- 
ed over  delusion,  the  assassins  of  liberty.  Why  then  the 
noble  lord  can  think  I  am  ambitious  of  present  popularity, 
that  echo  of  follv,  and  shadow  of  renown,  I  am  at  a  loss 
to  determine.  Besides,  I  do  not  know  that  the  bill  now 
before  your  lordships  will  be  popular ;  it  depends  much 
upon  the  caprice  of  the  day.  It  may  not  be  popular  to 
compel  people  to  pay  their  debts  ;  and,  in  that  case,  the 
present  must  be  a  very  unpopular  bill.  It  may  not  be 
popular  neither  to  take  away  any  of  the  privileges  of  par- 
liament: for  I  very  well  remember,  and  many  of  your 
lordships  may  remember,  that,  not  long  ago,  the  popular 
cry  was  for  the  extension  of  privilege  ;  and  so  far  did  ihey 
carry  it  at  that  time,  that  it  was  said,  the  privilege  pro- 
tected members  even  in  criminal  actions  ;  nay,  such  was 
the  power  of  popular  prejudices  over  weak  minds,  that 
the  very  decisions  of  some  of  the  courts  were  tinctured 
with  that  doctrine.  It  was  undoubtedly  an  abominable 
doctrine  ;  I  thought  so  then,  and  I  think  so  still ;  but 
nevertheless,  it  was  a  popular  doctrine,  and  came  imme- 
diatelv  from  those  v/ho  v/ere  called  the  friends  of  liberty, 


W 


58  AMERICAN  1 

how  deservedly,  time  will  show.  True,  liberty,  in  my  opi- 
nion, can  only  exist  when  justice  is  equally  administered 
to  all ;  to  the  king  and  to  the  beggar.  Where  is  the- jus- 
tice then,  or  where  is  the  law  that  protects  a  member  of 
parliament  more  than  any  other  man,  from  the  punishment 
due  to  his  crimes.^  The  laws  of  this  country  allow  of  no 
place,  nor  any  employment,  to  be  a  sanctuary  for  crimes; 
and  where  I  have  the  honor  to  sit  as  judge,  neither  royal 
favor,  nor  popular  applause,  shall  ever  protect  the  guilty. 
I  have  now  only  to  beg  pardon  for  having  employed  so 
much  of  your  lordships'  lime  ;  and  I  am  sorry  a  bill, 
fraught  with  so  many  good  consequences,  has  not  met 
with  an  abler  advocate ;  but  I  doubt  not  your  lordships' 
determination  will  convince  the  world,  that  a  bill,  calcu- 
lated to  contribute  so  much  to  the  equal  distribution  of 
justice  as  the  present,  requires  with  your  lordships  but 
very  little  support. 

Colonel  Barre  i?i  reply  to  Lord  North  on  a  message  from  the 
King  on  Afnerican  affairs^  British  House  of  Commons^ 
—1774. 

I  rise  with  great  unwillingness  to  oppose  this  measure 
in  its  very  infancy,  before  its  features  are  well  formed,  or 
to  claim  that  attention  which  this  house  seems  to  bestow 
with  so  much  reluctance  on  any  arguments  in  behalf  of 
America.  But  I  must  call  you  to  witness,  that  I  have 
been  hitherto  silent,  or  acquiescent,  to  an  unexpected  de- 
gree of  moderation.  While  your  proceedings,  severe  as 
they  were,  had  the  least  colour  of  foundation  in  justice,  I 
desisted  Irom  opposing  them  ;  nay  more — though  your 
bill  for  stopping  up  the  port  of  Boston  contained  in  it 
many  things  most  cruel,  unwarrantable,  and  unjust,  yet 
as  they  were  couched  under  those  general  principles  of 
justice,  retribution  for  injury,  and  compensation  for  loss 
sustained,  I  not  only  desisted  from  opposing,  but  assented 
to  its  passing.  The  bUl  was  a  bad  way  of  doing  what  was 
right ;  but  stiil  it  was  doing  what  was  right.  I  would  not, 
therefore,  by  opposing  it,  seem  to  countenance  those  vio- 
lences which  had  been  committed  abroad  ;  and  of  which 
no  man  disapproves  more  than  I  do. 

Upon  the  present  question  I  am  totally  unprepared. 
The  motion  itself  bears  no  sort  of  resemblance  to  what 


SPEAKER.  59 

was  formerly  announced.  The  noble  lord  and  his  friends 
have  had  every  advantage  of  preparation.  They  have  re- 
connoitred the  field,  and  chosen  their  ground.  To  attack 
them  in  these  circumstances  may,  perhaps,  savour  more 
of  the  gallantry  of  a  soldier,  than  of  the  wisdom  of  a  sena- 
tor. But,  sir,  the  proposition  is  so  glaring ;  so  unprece- 
dented in  any  former  proceedings  of  parliament;  so  un- 
warranted by  any  delay,  denial,  or  preservation  of  justice 
in  America ;  so  big  with  misery  and  oppression  to  that 
country,  and  with  danger  to  this — that  the  first  blush  of  it 
is  sufficient  to  alarm  and  rouse  me  to  opposition. 

It  is  proposed  to  stigmatize  a  whole  people  as  persecu- 
tors of  innocence,  and  men  incapable  of  doing  justice  ;  yet 
you  have  not  a  single  fact  on  which  to  ground  that  impu- 
tation. I  expected  the  noble  lord  would  have  supported 
this  motion  by  producing  instances  of  the  officers  of  go- 
vernment in  America  having  been  prosecuted  with  unre- 
mitting vengeance,  and  brought  to  cruel  and  dishonoura- 
ble deaths  by  the  violence  and  injustice  of  American  ju- 
ries. But  he  has  not  produced  one  such  instance  ;  and  I 
will  tell  you  more,  sir — he  cannot  produce  one.  The  in- 
stances which  have  happened  are  directly  in  the  teeth  of 
his  proposition.  Colonel  Preston,  and  the  soldiers,  who 
shed  the  blood  of  the  people,  were  fairly  tried,  and  fully 
acquitted.  It  was  an  American  jury,  a  New  England 
jury,  a  Boston  jurv,  which  tried  and  acquitted  them. 
Colonel  Preston  has,  under  his  hand,  publicly  declared, 
that  the  inhabitants  of  the  very  town  in  which  their  fel- 
low citizens  had  been  sacrificed,  were  his  advocates  and 
defenders.  Is  this  the  return  you  make  them  ?  Is  this 
the  encouragement  you  give  them  to  persevere  in  so  laud- 
able a  spirit  of  justice  and  moderation  ?  When  a  com- 
missioner of  the  customs,  aided  by  a  number  of  ruffi  ms, 
assaulted  the  celebrated  Mr.  Otis  in  the  midst  of  the 
town  of  Boston,  and  with  the  most  barbarous  violence 
almost  murdered  him,  did  the  mob,  which  is  said  to  rule 
that  town,  take  ven;;eance  on  the  perpetrators  of  this  inhu- 
man outrage,  against  a  person  who  is  supposed  to  be  their 
demagogue  ?  No,  sir,  the  law  tried  them  :  the  law  gave 
heavy  damages  against  them  ;  which  the  irreparably  in- 
jured Mr.  Otis  most  generously  forgave,  upon  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  offence.     Can  you  expect  any  more 


\ 


60  AMERICAN 

such  instances  of  magnanimity  under  the  principle  of  the 
bill  now  proposed?  But  the  nuble  lord  says,  "  We  must 
now  shew  the  Americans  that  we  will  no  longer  sit  quiet 
tinder  their  insults."  Sir,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  this  is 
declamation,  unbecoming  the  character  and  place  of  him 
who  utters  it.  In  what  moment  have  you  been  quiet? 
Has  not  your  government  for  many  years  past  been  a  se- 
ries of  irritating  and  offensive  measures,  without  policy, 
principle,  or  moderation  ?  Have  not  your  troops  and  your 
ships  made  a  vain  and  insulting  parade  in  their  streets  and 
in  their  harbours  ?  It  has  seemed  to  be  your  study  to  irri- 
tate and  inflame  them.  You  have  stimulated  discontent 
into  disaffection,  and  you  are  now  goading  that  disaffection 
into  rebellion.  Can  you  expect  to  be  well  informed  when 
you  listen  only  to  partizans  ?  Can  you  expect  to  do  justice 
when  you  will  not  hear  the  accused  ? 

Let  us  consider,  sir,  the  precedents  which  are  olTered  to 
warrant  this  proceedirig — the  suspension  of  the  habeas  cor- 
•pus  2iZ\.'vci  1745 — the  making  smugglers  triable  in  Mid- 
dlesex, and  the  Scotch  rebels  in  England.  Sir,  the  first 
wt  s  done  upon  the  most  pressing  necessity, y?w^T<:/;?/e'  hello ^ 
with  a  dangerous  rebellion  in  the  very  heart  of  the  king- 
dom ;  the  second,  you  well  know,  was  warranted  by  the 
most  evident  facts  ;  armed  bodies  of  smugglers  marched 
publicly,  without  presentment  or  molestation  from  the 
people  of  the  county  of  Sussex,  who,  even  to  their  magis- 
trates, were  notoriously  conuected  with  them.  They 
murdered  the  officers  of  the  revenue,  engaged  your  troops, 
and  openly  violated  the  laws.  Experience  convinced  you, 
that  the  juries  of  that,  and  of  the  counties  similarly  cir- 
cumstanced, would  never  find  such  criminals  guilty  ;  and 
upon  the  conviction  of  this  necessity  you  passed  the  act. 
The  same  necessity  justified  the  trying  Scotch  rebels  in 
England.  Rebellion  had  raised  its  dangerous  standard  in 
Scotland,  and  the  principles  of  it  had  so  universally  taint- 
ed that  people,  that  it  was  manifestly  in  vain  to  expect 
justice  from  them  against  their  countrymen.  But  in  Ame- 
rica, not  a  single  act  of  rebellion  has  been  committed. 
Let  the  crown  law  officers,  who  sit  by  the  noble  lord,  de- 
clare, if  they  can,  that  there  is  upon  >  our  table  a  single 
evidence  of  treason  or  rebellion  in  America.  They  know, 


SPEAKER.  61 

sir,  there  is  not  one,  and  yet  are  proceeding  as  if  there 
were  a  thousand. 

Having  thus  proved  Sir,  that  the  proposed  bill  is  without 
precedent  to  support,  and  without  facts  to  warrant  it,  let 
us  now  view  the  consequences  it  is  likely  to  produce.  A 
soldier  feels  himself  so  much  above  the  rest  of  mankind, 
that  the  strict  hand  of  the  civil  power  is  necessary  to  con- 
trol the  haughtiness  of  disposition  which  such  superiority 
inspires.  You  know,  sir,  what  constant  care  is  taken  in 
this  country  to  remind  the  military  that  they  are  under 
the  restraint  of  the  civil  power.  In  America  their  supe- 
riority is  felt  still  greater.  Remove  the  check  of  the  law, 
as  this  bill  intends,  and  what  insolence,  what  outrage  may 
you  not  expect  ?  Every  passion  that  is  pernicious  to  so- 
ciety will  be  let  loose  upon  a  people  unaccustomed  to 
licentiousness  and  intemperance.  On  the  one  hand  will 
be  a  people  who  have  been  long  complaining  of  oppres* 
sion,  and  see  in  the  soldiery  those  who  are  to  enforce  it 
upon  them  ;  on  the  other,  an  army  studiously  preposses- 
sed with  the  idea  of  that  people  being  rebellious,  unawed  by 
the  apprehension  of  civil  control,  and  actuated  by  that  ar- 
bitrary spirit  which  prevails  even  amongst  the  best  of 
troops. — III  this  situation  the  prudent  officer  will  find  it 
impossible  to  restrain  his  soldiers,  or  prevent  that  provo- 
cation which  will  rouse  the  tamest  people  to  resistance. 
The  inevitable  consequence  will  be,  that  you  will  produce 
the  rebellion  you  pretend  to  obviate. 

I  have  been  bred  a  soldier ;  having  served  long. — I  re- 
spect the  profession,  and  live  in  the  strictest  habits  of 
friendship  with  a  great  many  officers  ;  but  there  is  not  a 
country  gentleman  of  you  all,  who  looks  upon  the  army 
with  a  more  jealous  eye,  or  would  more  strenuously 
resist  the  setting  them  above  the  control  of  the  civil  pow- 
er. No  man  is  to  be  trusted  in  such  a  situation.  It  is 
not  the  fault  of  the  soldier,  but  the  vice  of  human  nature, 
which,  unbridled  by  law,  becomes  insolent  and  licentious, 
wantonly  violates  the  peace  of  society,  and  tramples  upon 
the  rights  of  human  kind. 

With  respect  to  those  gentlemen  who  are  destined  to 
this  service,  they  are  much  to  be  pitied.  It  is  .1  service, 
which  an  officer  of  feeling  and  of  worth  must  enter  upon 
with   infinite  reluctance.     A  service,  in  which  his  only 

G 


62  AMERICAN 

merit  much  be,  to  hear  much^  and  do  little.  With  the  me- 
lancholy prospect  before  him  of  commencing  a  civil  war, 
and  embruing  his  hands  in  the  blood  of  his  fellow-subjects, 
his  feelings,  his  life,  his  honour  are  hazarded,  without  a 
possibility  of  any  equivalent  or  compensation.  You  may 
perhaps  think  a  law,  founded  upon  this  motion,  will  be  his 
protection.  I  am  mistaken  if  it  will.  Who  is  to  execute 
it?  He  must  be  a  bold  man  indeed  who  makes  the  at- 
tempt: if  the  people  are  so  exasperated,  th^t  it  is  unsafe 
to  bring  the  man  who  has  injured  them  to  trial,  let 
the  governor  who  withdraws  him  from  justice  look  to 
himself.  The  people  will  not  endure  it :  they  would  no 
longer  deserve  the  reputation  of  being  descended  from  the 
the  loins  of  Englishmen,  if  they  did  endure  it. 

W^hen  I  stand  up  as  an  advocate  for  Arherica,  I  feel 
myself  the  firmest  friend  of  this  country.  We  stand  upon 
the  commerce  of  America.  Alienate  your  colonies,  and 
you  will  subvert  the  foundation  of  your  riches  and  your 
strength.  Let  the  banners  be  once  spread  in  America, 
and  you  .are  an  undone  people.  You  are  urging  this  des- 
perate, this  destructive  issue.  You  are  urging  it  with 
such  violence,  and  by  measures  tending  so  manifestly  to 
that  fatal  point,  that,  but  for  that  state  of  madness  which 
only  could  inspire  such  an  intention,  it  would  appear  to  be 
your  deliberate  purpose.  In  assenting  to  your  late  bill  I 
resisted  the  violence  of  America,  at  the  hazard  of  my  po- 
pularity there.  I  now  resist  your  phrenzy,  at  the  same 
risk  here.  You  have  changed  your  ground.  You  are 
becoming  the  aggressors,  and  offering  the  last  of  human 
outrages  to  the  people  of  America,  by  subjecting  them,  in 
effect,  to  military  execution.  I  know  the  vast  superiority 
of  your  disciplined  troops  over  the  Provincials;  but  be- 
ware hsw  you  supply  the  want  of  discipline  by  despera- 
tion. Instead  of  sending  them  the  olive  branch, 50U  have 
sent  the  naked  sword,  l.^y  the  olive  branch  I  mean  a  re- 
peal of  all  the  late  laws,  fruitless  to  you  and  oppressive  to 
Uiem. 

Ask  their  aid  in  a  constitutional  manner,  and  they  will 
give  it  to  the  utmost  of  their  iibility.  They  never  yet  re- 
fused it  when  properly  required.  Your  journals  bear  the 
recortied  acknowledgments  of  the  zeal  with  which  they 
have  contributed  to  the  general  necessities  of  the  state. 


SPEAKER.  -63 

What  madness  is  it  that  prompts  you  to  attempt  obtaining 
that  by  force  which  you  may  more  certainly  procure  by 
requisition  i  They  may  be  flattered  into  any  thing ;  but 
they  are  too  much  like  yourselves  to  be  driven.  H^ve 
some  indulgence  for  your  own  likeness ;  respect  their 
sturdy  English  virtue  ;  retract  your  odious  exertions  of  au- 
thority, and  remember,  that  the  first  step  towards  making 
them  contribute  to  your  wants,  is  to  reconcile  them  to 
your  government. 

Anszver  of  Colonel  Barre  to  one  of  the  Ministry  who  haa 
exclaimed — ''  And  now  will  these  Americans^  children 
planted  by  our  care^  nourished  up  by  our  indulgence^  tm» 
til  they  are  groxvn  to  a  degree  of  strength  and  opulence^ 
and  protected  by  our  arms^  will  they  grudge  to  contribute 
their  mite  to  relieve  ics  from  the  heavy  weight  of  that 
burden  which  we  lie  under  ^" 

They  planted  by  your  care  !  No,  your  oppressions  plant- 
ed them  in  America.  They  fled  from  yoiir  tyranny,  to  a 
then  uncultivated  and  unhospitable  country,  where  they 
exposed  themselves  to  almost  all  the  hardships  to  which 
human  nature  is  liable  ;  and,  among  others,  to  the  cruelties 
of  a  savage  foe,  the  most  subtle,  and  I  will  take  upon  rne 
to  say,  the  most  formidable  of  any  people  upon  the  face 
of  God's  earth  ;  and  yet,  actuated  by  principles  of  true 
English  liberty,  they  met  all  hardships  with  pleasure, 
compared  with  those  they  suffered  in  their  own  country, 
from  the  hands  of  those  that  should  have  been  their 
friends.  They  nourished  up  by  your  indulgence  !  They 
grew  by  your  neglect  of  them.  As  soon  as  you  began 
to  care  about  them,  that  care  was  exercised  in  sending 
persons  to  rule  them,  in  one  department  and  another,  who 
were,  perhaps,  the  deputies  of  deputies  to  some  members 
of  this  house,  sent  to  spy  out  their  liberties,  to  misrepre- 
sent their  actions,  and  to  pry  upon  them — men,  whose  be- 
haviour on  many  occasions,  has  caused  the  blood  of  those 
sons  of  liberty  to  recoil  within  them — men  promoted  to 
the  highest  seats  of  justice  ;  some  who  to  my  knowledge 
were  glad,  by  going  to  a  foreign  country,  to  escape  being 
brought  to  the  bar  of  a  court  of  justice  in  their  own. 
They  protected  by  your  arms  !  They  have  nobly  taken  up 


64  AMERICAN 

arms  in  your  defence  ;  have  exerted  a  valor,  amidst  their 
constant  and  laborious  industry,  for  the  defence  of  a  coun- 
try, whose  frontier  was  drenched  in  blood,  while  its  inte- 
rior parts  yielded  all  its  little  savings  to  your  emolument. 
And  believe  me,  remember  I  this  day  told  you  so,  that 
same  spirit  of  freedom,  which  actuated  that  people  at  first, 
will  accompany  them  still — but  prudence  forbids  me  to 
explain  myself  further.  God  knows  I  do  not  at  this  time 
speak  from  motives  of  party  heat;  what  I  deliver  are  the 
genuine  sentiments  of  my  heart.  However  superior  to 
me  in  gtneral  knowledge  and  experience  the  respectable 
body  of  this  house  ma\  be,  yet  I  claim  to  know  more  of 
America  than  most  of  you,  having  seen  and  been  conver- 
sant in  that  country.  The  people,  I  believe,  are  as  truly 
loyal  as  any  subjects  the  king  has ;  but  a  people  jealous  of 
their  liberties,  and  who  will  vindicate  them  if  ever  they 
should  be  violated — but  the  subject  is  too  delicate — I 
will  say  no  more. 

Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Governor  Poxvncl^on  Lord  NortK^s 
motion  for  a  Repeal  of  the  Port  Duties^  1770. 

"  If  it  be  asked,  whether  it  will  remove  apprehensions 
excited  by  your  resolutions  and  address  of  last  year  for 
bringing  to  trial  in  England  persons  accused  of  treason  in 
America,  I  answer  no.  If  it  be  asked,  if  this  commercial 
concession  would  quiet  the  minds  of  Americans  as  to  the 
political  doubts  and  fears  which  have  struck  them  to  the 
heart  throughout  the  continent,  I  answer  no.  So  long  as 
ihey  are  left  in  doubt,  whether  the  habeas  corpus  act,  whe- 
ther the  bill  of  rights,  whether  the  common  law,  as  now 
existing  m  England,  have  any  operation  and  effect  in 
xVmerica,  they  cannot  be  satisfied.  At  this  hour  they 
know  not,  whether  their  civil  constitutions  be  not  sus- 
pended and  superseded  by  the  establishment  of  a  military 
force.  The  Americans  think  that  they  have,  in  return  to 
all  their  applications,  experienced  a  temper  and  disposi- 
tion that  is  unfriendly  ; — that  the  enjoyment  and  exercise 
of  th'e  common  rights  of  freemen  have  been  refused  to 
them.  Never,  with  these  views  will  they  solicit  the  favor 
of  this  house.  Never  more  will  they  wish  to  bring  before 
parliament    the   grievances   under  which    they   conceive 


SPEAKER.    .  6S 

themselves  to  labor.  Deeply  as  they  feel,  they  suffer  with 
a  determined  and  alarming  silence.  For  their  liberty  they 
are  under  no  apprehensions.  It  was  first  planted  under 
the  auspicious  genius  of  the  constitution.  It  has  grown 
up  into  a  verdant  and  flourishing  tree  ;  and  should  any 
severe  strokes  be  aimed  at  the  branche*,  and  fate  reduces 
it  to  the  bare  stock,  it  would  only  take  deeper  root,  and 
spring  out  again  more  hardy  and  durable  than  before. 
They  trust  Providence,  and  wait  with  firmness  and  forti- 
tude the  issue." 

Lord  Chathaiii's  Speech  on  the  Bill  for  quartering  soldiers 
in  America^  1774. 

"  If,  my  lords,  we  take  a  transient  view  of  the  mo- 
tives which  induced  the  ancestors  of  our  fellow-subjects 
in  America  to  leave  their  native  country,  to  encounter 
the  innumerable  difficulties  of  the  unexplored  regions  of 
the  western  world,  our  astonishment  at  the  present  con- 
duct of  their  descendants  will  naturally  subside.  There 
was  no  corner  of  the  globe  to  which  they  would  not  have 
fled,  rather  than  submit  to  the  slavish  and  tyrannical  spirit 
which  prevailed  at  that  period  in  their  native  country  ; 
and  viewing  them  in  their  originally  forlorn  and  now  flou- 
rishing state,  they  may  be  cited  as  illustrious  instances  to 
instruct  the  world,  what  great  exertions  mankind  will  na- 
turally make,  when  left  to  the  free  exercise  of  their  own 
powers.  Notwithstanding  my  intention  to  give  my  heartv 
negative  to  the  question  nov/  before  you,  I  condemn,  my 
lords,  in  the  severest  manner,  the  turbulent  and  unwar- 
rantable conduct  of  the  Americans  in  some  instances,  par- 
ticularly in  the  late  riots  at  Boston  ;  but,  my  lords,  the 
mode  which  h-^s  been  pursued  to  bring  them  back  to  a 
sense  of  their  duty,  is  so  diametrically  opposite  to  everv 
principle  of  sound  policy,  as  to  excite  my  utmost  astonish- 
ment. You  have  involved  the  guilty  and  the  innocent  in 
one  common  punishment,  and  avenge  the  crimes  of  a  few 
lawless  depredators  upon  the  whole  body  of  the-  inhabi- 
tants. My  lords,  the  different  provinces  of  America,  in 
the  excess  of  their  gratitude  for  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act,  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  in  expressions  of  loy- 
alty and  duty  ;  but  the  moment  they  perceived  your  inten- 
tion to  tax  them  was  renewed  under  a  pretence  of  serving 

G2 


6a  AMERICAN 

the  East  India  company,  their  resentment  got  the  ascend- 
ant of  their  moderation,  and  hurried  them  into  actions 
which  iheir  cooler  reason  would  abhor.  But,  my  lords, 
from  the  whole  complexion  of  the  late  proceedings,  I  can- 
not but  incline  to  think  that  administration  has  purposely 
irritated  them  into  these  violent  acts,  in  order  to  gratify 
their  own  malice  and  revenge.  What  else  could  induce 
them  to  dress  taxation,  the  father  of  American  sedition, 
in  the  robes  of  an  East  India  director,  but  to  break  in 
upon  that  mutual  peace  and  harmony,  which  then  so  hap- 
pily subsisted  between  the  colonies,  and  the  mother  coun- 
try ?  My  lords,  it  has  always  been  my  fixed  and  unaltera- 
ble opinion,  and  I  will  carry  it  with  me  to  the  grave,  that 
this  country  had  no  right  under  heaven  to  tax  America. 
It  is  contrary  to  all  the  principles  of  justice  and  civil  po- 
licy :  it  is  contrary  to  that  essential,  that  unalterable  right 
in  ijature,  ingrafted  into  the  British  constitution  as  a  fun- 
damental law,  that  what  a  man  has  honestly  acquired  is 
absolutely  his  own,  which  he  may  freely  give,  but  which 
cannot  be  taken  from  him  without  his  consent.  Pass 
then,  my  lords,  instead  of  these  harsh  and  severe  edicts, 
an  amnesty  over  their  errors  :  by  measures  of  lenity  and 
affection  allure  them  to  their  duty  :  act  the  part  of  a  gene- 
rous and  forgiving  parent.  A  period  may  arrive  when 
this  parent  may  stand  in  need  of  every  assistance  she  can 
receive  from  a  grateful  and  affectionate  offspring.  The 
welfare  of  this  country,  my  lords,  has  ever  been  my  great- 
est joy,  and  undrr  all  the  vicissitucies  of  my  life  has  afford- 
ed me  the  most  pleasing  consolation.  Should  the  all-dis- 
posing hand  of  Providence  prevent  me  from  contributing 
my  poor  and  feeble  aid  in  the  day  of  her  distress,  my 
prayers  shall  be  ever  ^or  her  prosperity,  *  Length  of 
clays  be  in  her  right  hand,  and  in  her  left  hand  riches  and 
honour.  May  her  ways  be  the  ways  of  pleasantness;  and 
;all  ht  r  paths  be  peace  !' 

■  Extract  from  3Ir.  Burke^s  Speech  on  American  Taxation^ 
April  I9th,  1774. 

Sir, — I  agree  with  the  honorable  gentleman  who  spoke 
last,  that  this  subji-ct  is  not  new  in  this  house.  Very  dis- 
agreeably to  this  house,  very  unfortunately  to  this  nation, 
and  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  this  whole  empire,  no 


SPEAKER.  6^ 

topic  has  been  more  familiar  to  us.  For  nine  long  years, 
session  after  session,  we  have  been  lashed  round  and 
round  this  miserable  circle  of  occasional  arguments  and 
temporary  expedients.  I  am  sure  our  heads  must  turn, 
and  our  stomachs  nauseate  with  them.  We  have  had 
them  in  every  shape  ;  we  have  looked  at  them  in  every 
point  of  view.  Invention  is  exhausted ;  reason  is  fatigued  ^ 
experience  has  given  judgment;  but  obstinacy  is  not  yet 
conquered. 

But  I  hear  it  rung  continually  in  my  ears,  now  and  for- 
merlv, — *'  the  preamble !  what  will  become  of  the  pream- 
ble, if  you  repeal  this  tax?" — I  am  sorry  to  be  compelled 
so  often  to  expose  the  calamities  and  disgraces  of  parlia- 
ment. The  preamble  of  this  law,  standing  as  it  now 
stands,  has  the  lie  direct  given  to  it  by  the  provisionary 
part  of  the  act;  if  that  can  be  called  provisionary  which 
makes  no  provision.  I  should  be  afraid  to  express  my- 
self in  this  manner,  especially  in  the  face  of  such  a  for- 
midable array  of  ability  as  is  now  drawn  up  before  me, 
composed  of  the  ancient  household  troops  of  that  side  of 
the  house,  and  the  new  recruits  from  this,  if  the  matter 
were  not  clear  and  indisputable.  Nothing  but  truth  could 
give  me  this  firmness;  but  plain  truth  and  clear  evidence 
can  be  beat  down  by  no  ability^  The  clerk  will  be  so  good 
as  to  turn  to  the  act,  and  to  read  this  favourite  preamble: 

Whereas  it  is  expedient  that  a  reveiiue  should  be  raised 
in  your  majestifs  dominions  in  America^  for  making  a  more 
certain  and  adequate  provision  for  defrafing  the  charge  of 
the  administration  of  justice,  and  support  of  civil  govern- 
ment, in  such  provinces  ivhere  it  shall  be  found  necessary  ; 
and  toxvards  further  defraying  the  expenses  of  defending, 
protecting,  and  securing  the  said  dominions. 

You  have  heard  this  pompous  performance.  Now 
where  is  the  revenue  which  is  to  do  all  these  mighty 
things?  Five  sixths  repealed — abandoned — sunk — gone 
— lost  for  ever.-:-Does  the  poor  solitary  tea  duty  support 
the  purposes  of  this  preamble  ?  Is  not  the  supply  there 
stated  as  eifectually  abandoned  as  if  the  tea  duty  had  pe- 
rished in  the  general  wreck?  Here,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  a  pre- 
cious mocker}' — a  preamble  without  an  act — taxes  grant- 
ed in  order  to  be  repealed — and  the  reasons  of  the  grant 
still  carefully  kept  up  !  This  is  raising  a  revenue  in  Ame- 


68  AMERICAN 

rica!  This  is  preserving  dignity  in  England!  If  you  re- 
peal this  tax  in  compliance  with  the  motion,  I  readily  ad- 
mit that  you  lose  this  fair  preamble'.  Estimate  your  loss 
in  it.  The  object  of  the  act  is  gone  already;  and  all  you 
suffer  is  the  purging  the  statute-book  of  the  opprobrium  of 
an  empty,  absurd,  and  false  recital. 

*'  Sir,  It  is  not  a  pleasant  consideration;  but  nothing  in 
the  world  can  read  so  awful  and  so  instructive  a  lesson,  as 
the  conduct  of  ministry  in  this  business,  upon  the  mischief 
of  not  having  large  and  liberal  ideas  in  the  management  of 
great  affairs.  Never  have  the  servants  of  the  state  look- 
ed at  the  whole  of  your  complicated  interests  in  one  con- 
nected view.  They  have  taken  things,  by  bits  and  scraps, 
some  at  one  time  and  one  pretence,  and  some  at  another, 
just  as  they  pressed,  without  any  sort  of  regard  to  their 
relations  or  dependencies.  They  never  had  any  kind  of 
system,  right  or  wrong ;  but  only  invented  occasionally 
some  miserable  tale  for  the  day,  in  order  meanly  to  sneak 
out  of  difficulties,  into  which  they  had  proudly  strutted. 
And  they  were  put  to  all  these  shifts  and  devices,  full  of 
meanness  and  full  of  mischief,  in  order  to  pilfer  piecemeal 
a  repeal  of  an  act,  which  they  had  not  the  generous  cou- 
rage, when  they  found  and  felt  their  error,  honourably  and 
fciirly  to  disclaim.  By  such  management,  by  the  irresis- 
tible operation  of  feeble  councils,  so  paltry  a  sum  as  three- 
pence in  the  ejes  of  a  financier,  so  insignificant  an  article 
as  tea  in  the  eyes  of  a  philosopher,  have  shaken  the  pillars 
of  a  commercial  empire  that  circled  the  whole  globe. 

Could  any  thing  be  a  subject  of  more  just  alarm  to  Ame- 
rica, than  to  see  you  go  out  of  the  plain  high  road  of 
finance,  and  give  up  your  most  certain  revenues  and  your 
clearest  interest,  merely  for  the  sake  of  insulting  your  co- 
lonies? No  man  ever  doubted  that  the  commodity  of  tea 
could  bear  an  imposition  of  three-pence.  But  no  commo- 
dity will  bear  three-pence,  or  will  bear  a  penny,  when  the 
general  feelings  of  men  are  irritated,  and  two  millions  of 
people  are  resolved  not  to  pay.  The  feelings  of  the  colo- 
nies were  iormerly  the  feelings  of  Great  Britain.  Theirs 
were  formerly  the  feelings  of  Mr.  Hampden  when  called 
upon  for  the  payment  of  twenty  shillings.  Would  twenty 
shillings  have  rumed  Mr.  Hampden's  fortune?  No!  but 
the  payment  of  half  twenty  shillings,  on  the  principle  it 


SPEAKER.  69 

was  demandecl,  would  have  made  him  a  slave.  It  is  the 
weight  of  that  preamble,  of  which  you  are  so  fond,  and 
not  the  weight  of  the  duty,  that  the  Americans  are  unable 
and  unwilling  to  bear. 

They  tell  you,  sir,  that  your  dignity  is  tied  to  it.  I  know 
not  how  it  happens,  but  this  dignity  of  yours  is  a  terrible 
incumbrance  to  you ;  for  it  has  of  late  been  ever  at  war 
with  your  interest,  your  equity,  and  every  idea  of  your 
policy.  Shew  the  thing  you  contend  for  to  be  reason  ; 
shew  it  to  be  common  sense;  shew  it  to  be  the  means  of 
attaining  some  useful  end  ;  and  then  I  am  content  to  allow 
it  what  dignity  you  please.  But  what  dignity  is  derived 
from  the  perseverance  in  absurdity  is  more  than  I  ever 
could  discern. 

If  this  dignity,  which  is  to  stand  in  the  place  of  just 
policy  and  common  sense,  had  been  consulted,  there  was 
a  time  for  preserving  it,  and  for  reconciling  it  with  any 
concession.  If,  in  the  session  of  1768,  that  session  ot 
idle  terror  and  empty  menaces,  you  had,  as  you  were  often 
pressed  to  do,  repealed  these  taxes  ;  then  your  strong  ope- 
l^tions  wuuld  have  come  justified  and  enforced,  in  case 
your  concessions  had  been  returned  by  outrages.  But, 
preposterously,  you  began  with  violence  ;  and  before  ter- 
rors could  have  any  effect,  either  good  or  bad,  your  mini- 
sters immediately  begged  pardon,  and  promised  that  re- 
peal to  the  obstinate  Americans  which  they  had  refused 
in  an  easy,  good-natured,  complying  British  parliament. 
The  assemblies,  which  had  been  publicly  and  avowedly  dis- 
solved for  ihei7-  contumacy,  are  called  together  to  receive 
i/oz/r  submission.  Your  ministerial  directors  blustered  like 
tragic  tyrants  here;  and  then  went  mumping  with  a  sore 
leg  in  America,  canting  and  whir.ing,  and  complaining  of 
faction,  which  represented  them  as  friends  to  a  revenue 
from  the  colonies. 

Sir,  they  who  are  friends  to  the  schemes  of  American 
revenue  say,  that  the  commercial  restraint  is  full  as  hard  a 
law  for  America  to  live  under.  I  think  so  loo.  I  think 
it,  if  uncompensated,  to  be  a  condition  of  as  rigorous  ser- 
vitude as  men  can  be  subject  to.  But  America  bore  it 
from  the  fundamental  act  of  navigation  until  1764.— 
Why?  because  men  do  beai^  the  inevitable  constitution  of 
their  original  nature  with  all  its  infirmities.     I'he  act  of 


TO  AMERICAN 

navigation  attended  the  colonies  from  their  infancy,  grew 
with  iheir  growth,  and  strengthened  with  their  strength. 
They  were  confirmed  in  obedience  to  it,  even  more  by 
Usage  than  by  law.  They  scarcely  had  remembered  a 
time  when  they  were  not  subject  to  such  restraint.  Be- 
sides, they  were  indemnified  for  it  by  a  pecuniary  com- 
pensation. Their  monopohst  happened  to  be  one  of  the 
richest  men  in  the  world.  By  his  immense  capital  (pri- 
marily employed,  not  for  their  benefit,  but  his  own)  they 
were  enabled  to  proceed  with  their  fisheries,  their  agricul- 
ture, their  ship-building  (and  their  trade  too  within  the 
limits),  in  such  a  manner  as  got  far  the  start  of  the  slow 
languid  operations  of  unassisted  nature.  This  capital  was 
a  hot-bed  to  them.  Nothing  in  the  history  of  mankind 
is  like  their  progress.  For  my  part,  I  never  cast  an  eye 
on  their  flourishing  commerce,  and  their  cultivated  and 
commodious  life,  but  they  seem  to  me  rather  ancient  na- 
tions grown  to  perfection  through  a  long  series  of  fortu- 
nate events,  and  a  train  of  successful  industry,  accumulat- 
ing wealth  in  many  centuries,  than  the  colonies  of  yester- 
day ;  than  a  set  of  miserable  out-coats,  a  fc-w  years  ago, 
not  so  mucn  sent  as  thrown  out,  on  the  bleak  and  barren 
shore  of  a  desolate  wilderness  three  thousand  miles  from 
all  civilized  intercourse. 

All  this  was  done  by  England,  whilst  England  pursued 
trade,  and  forgot  revenue.  You  not  only  afcquired  com- 
merce, but  you  actually  created  the  very  objects  of  trade 
in  America;  and  by  that  creation  you  raised  the  trade  of 
this  kingdom  at  least  four-fold.  America  had  the  com- 
pensation of  your  capital,  which  made  her  bear  her  servi- 
tude. She  had  another  compensation,  which  you  are  now 
going  to  take  away  from  her.  She  had,  except  the  com- 
mercial restraint,  every  characteristic  mark  of  a  free  peo- 
ple in  all  her  internal  concerns.  She  had  the  image  of  the 
British  constitution.  She  had  the  substance.  She  was 
taxed  by  her  own  representatives.  She  chose  most  of  her 
own  magistrates.  She  paid  them  all.  She  had  in  effect 
the  sole  disposal  of  her  own  internal  government.  This 
whole  state  of  commercial  servitude  and  civil  liberty, 
taken  together,  is  certainly  not  perfect  freedom  ;  but  com- 
paring it  with  the  ordinary  circumstances  of  human  na- 
ture, it  was  an  happy  and  a  liberal  condition. 


SPEAKER.  71 

Extract  from  the  same  speech  on  American  Taxation^  zvith 
a  sketch  of  the  character  of  Mr,  Grenmlle. 

Whether  you  were  right  or  wrong  in  establishing  the 
colonies  on  the  principles  of  commercial  monopoly,  rather 
than  on  that  of  revenue,  is  at  this  day  a  problem  of  mere 
speculation.  You  cannot  have  both  by  the  same  authority. 
To  join  together  the  restraints  of  an  universal  internal 
and  external  monopoly,  with  an  universal  internal  and  ex- 
ternal taxation,  is  an  unnatural  union  ;  perfect  uncompen- 
sated slavery.  You  have  long  since  decided  for  yourself 
and  them  ;  and  you  and  they  have  prospered  exceedingly 
under  that  decision. 

This  nation,  sir,  never  thought  of  departing  from  that 
choice  until  the  period  immediately  on  the  close  of  the 
last  war.  Then  a  scheme  of  government  new  in  many 
things  seemed  to  have  been  adopted.  I  saw,  or  thought  I 
saw,  several  symptoms  of  a  great  change,  whilst  I  sat  in 
your  gallery,  a  good  while  before  I  had  the  honour  of  a 
seat  in  this  house.  At  that  period  the  necessity  was  esta- 
blished of  keeping  up  no  less  than  twenty  new  regiments, 
with  twenty  colonels  capable  of  st  nts  in  this  house.  This 
scheme  was  adopted  with  very  general  applause  on  both 
sides,  at  the  very  time  that,  by  your  conquests  in  Ameri- 
ca, your  danger  from  foreign  attempts  in  that  part  of  the 
world  was  much  lessened,  or  indeed  rather  quite  over. 
When  this  huge  increase  of  military  establishment  was 
resolved  on,  a  revenue  was  to  be  found  to  support  so  great 
a  burthen.  Country  gentlemen,  the  great  patrons  of  eco- 
nomy, and  the  great  resisters  of  a  standing  armed  force, 
would  not  have  entered  wiih  much  alacrity  into  the  vote 
for  so  large  and  so  expensive  an  army,  if  they  had  been 
very  sure  that  they  were  to  continue  to  pay  for  it.  But 
hopes  of  another  kind  were  held  out  to  them ;  and  iri  par- 
ticular, I  well  remember,  that  Mr.  Townshend,  in  a  bril- 
liant harangue  on  this  subject,  did  dazzle  them,  by  playing 
before  their  eyes  the  image  of  a  revenue  to  be  raised  in 
America. 

Here  began  to  dawn  the  first  glimmerings  of  this  new 
colony  system.  It  appeared  more  distinctly  afterwards, 
when  it  was  devolved  upon  a  person  to  whom,  on  other 
accounts,  this  country  owes  very  great  obligations.     I  do 


rz  AMERICAN 

believe,  that  he  had  a  very  serious  desire  to  benefit  the 
public.  But  with  no  small  study  of  the  detail,  he  did  not 
seem  to  have  his  view,  at  least  equally,  carried  to  the  total 
circuit  of  our  affairs.  He  generally  considered  his  objects 
in  lights  that  were  rather  too  detached.  Whether  the 
business  of  an  American  revenue  was  imposed  upon  him 
altogether ;  whether  it  was  entirely  the  result  of  his  own 
speculation  ;  or,  what  is  more  probable,  that  his  own  ideas 
rather  coincided  with  the  instructions  he  had  received ; 
certain  it  is,  that,  with  the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  he 
first  brought  this  fatal  scheme  into  form,  and  established  it 
by  act  of  parliament. 

No  man  can  believe,  that  at  this  time  of  day  I  mean  to 
lean  on  the  venerable  memory  of  a  great  man,  whose  loss 
we  deplore  in  common.  Our  little  party-differences  have 
been  long  ago  composed  ;  and  I  have  acted  more  with 
him,  and  certainly  with  more  pleasure  with  him,  than  ever 
I  acted  against  him.  Undoubtedly  Mr.  Grenville  was  a 
first-rate  figure  in  this  country.  With  a  masculine  under- 
standing, and  a  stout  and  resolute  heart,  he  had  an  appli- 
cation undissipated  and  unwearied.  He  took  public  busi- 
ness, not  as  a  duty  which  he  was  to  fulfil,  but  as  a  pleasure 
he  was  to  enjoy  ;  and  he  seemed  to  have  no  delight  out  of 
this  house,  except  in  such  things  as  some  way  related  to 
the  business  that  was  to  be  done  within  it.  If  he  was 
ambitious,  I  will  say  this  for  him,  his  ambition  was  of  a 
noble  and  generous  strain.  It  was  to  raise  himself,  not 
by  the  low  pimping  politics  of  a  court,  but  to  win  his  way 
to  power,  through  the  laborious  gradations  of  public  ser- 
vice  ;  and  to  secure  himself  a  well-earned  rank  in  parlia- 
ment, by  a  thorough  knowledge  of  its  constitution,  and  a 
perfect  practice  in  all  its  business. 

Sir,  if  such  a  man  fell  into  errors,  it  must  be  from  de- 
fects Yiot  intrinsical ;  they  must  be  rather  sought  in  the 
particular  habits  of  his  life  ;  which,  though  they  do  not 
alter  the  ground-work  of  character,  yet  tinge  it  with  their 
own  hue.  He  was  bred  in  a  profession.  He  was  bred  to 
the  law,  which  is,  in  my  opinion,  one  of  th  first  and  no- 
blest of  human  sciences  ;  a  science  which  does  more  to 
quicken  and  invigorate  the  understanding,  than  all  the 
other  kmds  of  learning  put  together  ;  but  it  is  not  apt,  ex- 
cept in  persons  very  happily  born,  to  open  and  to  libs-ralise 


SPEAKER.  73 

the  mind  exactly  in  the  same  proportion.  Passing  from 
that  study  he  did  not  go  very  largely  into  the  world  ;  but 
plunged  into  business  ;  I  mean  into  the  business  of  office ; 
and  the  limited  and  fixed  methods  and  forms  established 
there.  .  Much  knowledge  is  to  be  had  undoubtedly  in 
that  line  ;  and  there  is  no  knowledge  which  is  not  va- 
luable. But  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  men  too  much  con- 
versant in  office,  are  rarely  minds  of  remarkable  enlarge- 
ment. Their  habits  of  office  are  apt  to  give  them  a  turn 
to  think  the  substance  of  business  not  to  be  much  more  im- 
portant than  the  forms  in  which  it  is  conducted.  These 
forms  are  adapted  to  ordinary  occasions  ;  and  therefore 
persons  who  are  nurtured  in  office,  do  admirably  well,  as 
long  as  things  go  on  in  their  common  order ;  but  when  the 
high  roads  are  broken  up,  and  the  waters  out,  when  a  new 
and  troubled  scene  is  opened,  and  the  file  affords  no  prece- 
dent, then  it  is  that  a  greater  knowledge  of  mankind,  and  a 
far  more  extensive  comprehension  of  things  is  requisite 
than  ever  office  gave,  or  than  office  can  ever  give.  Mr. 
Grenville  thought  betjer  of  the  wisdom  and  power  of  hu- 
man legislation  than  in  truth  it  deserves.  He  conceived, 
and  many  conceived  along  with  him,  that  the  flourishing 
'  trade  of  this  country  was  greatly  owing  to  law  and  institu- 
tion, and  not  quite  so  much  to  liberty  ;  for  but  too  many 
are  apt  to  believe  regulation  to  be  commerce,  and  taxes  to 
be  revenue.  Among  regulations,  that  which  stood  first 
in  reputation  v,  as  his  idol.  I  mean  the  act  of  navigation. 
He  has  often  professed  it  to  be  so.  The  policy  of  that 
act  is,  I  readily  admit,  in  many  respects  well  understood. 
But  I  do  say,  that  if  the  act  be  suffered  to  run  th-  fall 
length  of  its  principle,  and  is  not  changed  and  nudified 
according  to  the  change  of  times  and  the  fluctuation  of 
circumstances,  it  must  do  great  mischief,  and  frequently 
even  defeat  its  own  purpose. 

After  the  war,  and  in  the  last  years  of  it,  the  trade  of 
America  had  increased  far  beyond  the  speculations  of  the 
most  sanguine  imaginations.  It  swelled  out  on  every 
side.  It  filled  all  its  proper  channels  to  the  brim.  It 
overflowed  with  a  rich  redundance,  and  breaking  its  banks 
on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  it  spread  out  upon  some 
places,  where  it  was  indeed  improper,  upon  others  where 
it  was  only  irregular.     It  is  the  nature  of  all  greatness 


74^  AMERICAN 

not  to  be  exact ;  and  great  trade  will  always  be  attended 
with  considerable  abuses.  The  contraband  will  always 
keep  pace  in  some  measure  with  the  fair  trade.  It  should 
stand  as  a  fundamental  maxim,  that  no  vulgar  precaution 
ought  to  be  employed  in  the  cure  of  evils,  which  are  close- 
ly connected  with  the  cause  of  our  prosperity.  Perhaps 
this  great  person  turned  his  eyes  somewhat  less  than  was 
just,  towards  the  incredible  increase  of  the  fair  trade;  and 
looked  with  something  of  too  exquisite  a  jealousy  towards 
the  contraband.  He  certainly  felt  a  singular  degree  of 
anxiety  on  the  subject ;  and  even  began  to  act  from  that 
passion  earlier  than  is  commonly  imagined.  For  whilst 
he  was  first  lord  of  the  admiralty,  though  not  strictly  cal- 
led upon  in  his  official  line,  he  presented  a  very  strong 
memorial  to  the  lords  of  the  treasury  (my  Lord  Bute  was 
then  at  the  head  of  the  board)  ;  heavily  complaining  of 
the  growth  of  the  illicit  commerce  in  America.  Some  mis- 
chief happened  even  at  that  time  from  this  over-earnest  zeal. 
Much  greater  happened  afterwards  when  it  operated  with 
greater  power  in  the  highest  department  of  the  finances. 
The  bonds  of  the  act  of  navigation  were  straitened  so 
much,  that  America  was  on  the  point  of  having  no  trade, 
either  contraband  or  legitimate.  They  found,  under  the 
construction  and  execution  then  used,  the  act  no  longer 
tying  but  actually  strangling  them.  All  this  coming  with 
new  enumerations  of  commodities ;  with  regulations  which 
in  a  manner  put  a  stop  to  the  mutual  coasting  intercourse 
of  the  colonies  ;  with  the  appointment  of  courts  of  admi- 
ralty under  various  improper  circumstances  ;  with  a  sud- 
den extinction  of  the  paper  currencies  ;  with  a  compulsory 
provision  for  the  quartering  of  soldiers  ;  the  people  of 
America  thought  themselves  proceeded  against  as  delin- 
quents, or  at  best  as  people  under  suspicion  of  delinquen- 
cy ;  and  in  such  a  manner,  as  they  imagined,  their  recent 
services  in  the  war  did  not  at  all  merit.  Any  of  these  in- 
numerable regulations,  perhaps,  would  not  have  alarmed 
alone  ;  some  might  be  thought  reasonable  ;  the  multitude 
struck  them  with  terror. 


SPEAKER.  75 

Vteiu  of  the  EarlofChathain^s  last  administration^  and  Cha- 
racter of  Charles  Townshendy — Burke,  1774. 
"  Tranquillity  and  concord,  were  restored  by  the  repeal 
of  the  stamp  act :  but  did  not  continue  long.  Another 
scene  was  opened,  and  other  actors  appeared  on  the  stage. 
The  state,  in  the  condition  I  have  described  it,  was  de- 
livered into  the  hands  of  lord  Chatham — a  great  and  ce- 
lebrated name — a  name  that  keeps  the  name  of  this  coun- 
try respectable  in  every  other  country  on  the  globe — It 
may  be  truly  called 

*' Clarum  et  venerabile  nomen 

•'Gentibus,  et  multum  nostr?e  quod  proderat  urbi. 
"  The  venerable  age  of  this  great  man,  his  merited 
rank,  his  superior  eloquence,  his  splendid  qualities,  his 
eminent  services,  the  vast  space  he  fills  in  the  eye  of  man- 
kind, and,  more  than  all  the  rest,  his  fall  from  power, 
which,  like  death,  canonizes  and  sanctifies  a  great  charac- 
ter, will  not  suffer  me  to  censure  any  part  of  his  conduct. 
I  am  afraid  to  flatter  him  ;  I  am  sure  I  am  not  disposed 
to  blame  him.  Let  those  who  have  betrayed  him  by  their 
adulation,  insult  him  with  their  malevolence.  But  whit 
I  do  not  presume  to  censure,  I  may  have  leave  to  lament. 
For  a  wise  man,  he  seemed  to  me  at  that  time  to  be  gov- 
erned too  much  by  general  maxims.  I  speak  with  the 
freedom  of  history,  and  I  hope  without  offence — one,  or 
two  of  these  maxims,  flowing  from  an  opinion  not  the 
most  indulgent  to  our  unhappy  species,  and  surely  a  little 
too  general,  led  him  into  measures  » hich  were  greatly 
mischievous  to  himself,  and  for  that  reason,  among  others 
perhaps,  fatal  to  his  country — measures,  the  effects  of 
which,  I  am  afraid,  are  for  ever  incurable. 

'^  He  made  an  administration  so  chequered  and  speck- 
led ;  he  put  together  a  piece  of  joinery  so  crossly  indent- 
ed, and  whimsically  dove-tailed  ;  a  cabinet  so  variously 
inlaid,  such  a  piece  of  diversified  mosaic,  such  a  tesselated 
pavement  without  cement,  here  a  bit  of  black  stone  and 
there  a  bit  of  white  ;  patriots  and  courtiers,  king's  friends 
and  republicans,  whigs  and  turies,  treacherous  friends  and 
open  enemies ;  that  it  was  indeed  a  very  curious  show, 
but  utterly  unsafe  to  touch,  and  unsure  to  stand  on. 

"  In  consequence  of  this  arrangement,  having  put  so 
much  the  larger  part  of  his  enemies  and  opposers  into 


r6  AMERICAN 

power,  the  confusion  was  such  that  his  own  principles 
could  not  possibly  have  any  effect  or  influence  in  the  con- 
duct of  affairs.  If  ever  he  fell  into  a  fit  of  the  gout,  or 
if  any  other  cause  withdrew  him  from  public  cares,  prin- 
ciples directly  the  contrary  were  sure  to  predominate.— 
"When  he  had  executed  his  plan,  he  had  not  an  inch  of 
ground  to  stand  upon.  When  he  had  accomplished  his 
scheme  of  administration,  he  was  no  longer  a  minister. 
When  his  face  was  hid  but  for  a  moment,  his  whole  sys- 
tem was  on  a  wide  sea,  without  chart  or  compass.  The 
gentlemen,  his  political  friends,  who  with  the  names  of 
various  departments  of  ministry,  were  admitted,  to  seem, 
as  if  they  acted  a  part  under  him,  with  a  modesty  that 
becomes  all  men,  and  with  a  confidence  in  him  which  was 
justified  even  in  its  extravagance  by  his  superior  abilities, 
had  never  in  any  instance,  presumed  upon  any  opinion  of 
their  own.  Deprived  of  his  guiding  influence,  they  were 
whirled  about,  the  sport  of  every  gust,  and  easily  driven 
into  any  port ;  and  as  those  who  joined  with  them  in  man- 
ning the  vessel  were  the  most  directly  opposite  to  his  opi- 
nions, measures,  and  character,  and  far  the  most  artful  and 
most  powerful  of  the  set,  they  easily  prevailed  so  as  to  seize 
upon  the  vacant,  unoccupied,  and  derelict  minds  of  his 
friends ;  and  instantly  they  turned  the  vessel  wholly  out 
of  the  course  of  his  policy.  As  if  it  were  to  insult  as 
well  as  to  betray  him,  even  long  before  the  close  of  the 
first  session  of  his  administration,  when  every  thing  was 
publicly  transacted,  and  with  great  parade,  in  his  name, 
they  made  an  act  declaring  it  highly  just  and  expedient  to 
raise  a  revenue  in  America. 

"  At  the  period  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham's  evening  de- 
clination, I  discover  another  luminary,  rising  in  the  op- 
posite quarter  of  the  heavens,  and  becoming  for  his 
hour,  lord  of  the  ascendant.  This  light  too,  is  passed 
and  set  forever.  You  understand,  to  be  sure,  that  I  speak 
of  Charles  Townshend,  ofticially  the  reproducer  of  this 
fatal  scheme,  whom  I  cannot  even  now  remember  with- 
out some  degree  of  sensibility.  In  truth  he  was  the  de- 
light and  ornament  of  this  house,  and  the  charm  of  every 
private  society  which  he  honored  with  his  presence.  Per- 
hapsjlhere  never  arose  in  this  country,  nor  in  any  country, 
a  man  of  a  more  pointed  and  finiihed  wit ;  and  (where 


SPEAKER.  11 

his  passions  were  not  concerned)  of  a  more  refined,  ex- 
quisite, and  penetrating  judgment.  If  he  had  not  so 
great  a  stock,  as  some  have  had  who  flourished  formerly, 
of  knowledge  long  treasured  up,  he  knew  better  by  far 
than  any  man  I  ever  was  acquainted  with,  how  to  bring  to- 
gether in  a  short  time  all  that  was  necessary  to  establish,  to 
illustrate,  and  to  decorate  that  side  of  the  question  he 
supported.  He  stated  his  matter  skilfully  and  powerfully. 
He  particularly  excelled  in  a  most  luminous  explanation 
and  display  of  his  subject.  His  style  of  argument  was  nei- 
ther trite  nor  vulgar,  nor  subtle,  and  abstruse.  He  hit  the 
House  just  between  wind  and  water — And  not  being  trou- 
bled v/ith  too  anxious  a  zeal  for  any  matter  in  question,  he 
was  never  more  tedious,  or  more  earnest,  than  the  pre-con- 
ceived  opinions,  and  present  temper  of  his  hearers  required; 
to  whom  he  was  always  in  perfect  unison.  He  conformed 
exactly  to  the  temper  of  the  House,  and  he  seemed  to  guide, 
because  he  was  always  sure  to  follow  it. 

"  I  beg  pardon,  if  when  I  speak  of  this  and  of  other 
great  men,  I  appear  to  digress  in  saying  something  ol  their 
characters.  In  this  eventful  history  of  the  revolutions  of 
America,  the  characters  of  such  men  arc  of  much  import- 
ance. Great  men  are  the  guide  posts  and  land-marks  in  the 
state.  The  credit  of  such  men  at  court,  or  in  the  nation,  is 
the  sole  cause  of  all  the  public  measures.  It  would  be  an  in- 
vidious thing  (most  foreign  I  trust  to  what  you  think 
my  disposition)  to  remark  the  errors  into  which  the  autho- 
rity of  great  names  has  brought  the  nation,  without  doing 
justice  at  the  same  time  to  the  great  qualities,  whence  that: 
authority  arose.  The  subject  is  instructive  to  those  who 
wish  to  form  themselves  on  whatever  of  excellence  has 
gone  before  them.  There  are  many  young  members  in  the 
House  (such  of  late  has  been  the  rapid  succession  of  public 
men)  who  never  saw  that  prodigy  Charles  Townshend,  nor 
of  course  know  what  a  ferment  he  was  able  to  excite  in  ev- 
ery thing  by  the  violent  ebullition  of  bis  mixed  virtues  and 
failings  ;  for  failings  he  had  undoubtedly.  Many  of  us  re- 
member them — We  are  this  day  considering  the  effect  of 
tlTem.  But  he  had  no  failings  which  were  not  owing  to  a  no- 
ble cause ;  to  an  ardent,  generous,  perhaps  an  immoderata 
passion  for  fame — a  passion  which  h  the  insrinct  of  all  great 

H2 


ra  AMERICAN 

souls.  He  worshipped  that  goddess  wheresoever  she  ap- 
peared ;  but  he  paid  his  particular  devotions  to  her  in  her 
favorite  habitation,  in  her  chosen  temple,  the  House  of 
Commons.  Besides  the  characters  of  the  individuals  that 
compose  our  body,  it  is  impossible  not  to  observe,  that  this 
House  has  a  collective  character  of  its  own.  That  character 
too,  however  imperfect,  is  not  unamiable.  Like  all  great 
public  collections  of  men,  you  possess  a  marked  love  of  vir- 
tue, and  an  abhorrence  of  vice.  But,  among  vices,  there  is 
none  which  the  House  abhors  in  the  same  degree  with  ob- 
stinacy.  Obstinacy,  Sir,  is  certainly  a  great  vice  ;  and,  in 
the  changeful  state  of  political  affairs,  it  is  frequently  the 
cause  of  great  mischief.  It  happens  however  very  unfortu- 
nately, that  almost  the  whole  line  of  the  great  and  mascu- 
line virtues,  constancy,  gravity,  magnanimity,  fortitude, 
fidelity,  and  firmness  are  closely  allied  to  this  disagreeable 
quality  of  which  you  have  so  just  an  abhorrence  ;  and  in 
their  excess  all  these  \artues  very  easily  fall  into  it.  Ht  who 
paid  such  a  punctilious  attention  to  all  your  feelings  cer- 
tainly took  care  not  to  shock  them  by  that  vice  which  is 
the  most  disgustful  to  you.  That  fear  of  displeasing  those 
who  ought  most  to  be  pleased,  betrayed  him  sometimes 
into  the  other  extreme.  He  had  voted,  and  in  the  year 
1765  had  been  an  advocate  for  the  stamp  act.  Things 
and  the  disposition  of  men's  minds  were  changed.  In 
short,  the  stamp  act  began  to  be  no  favorite  in  this  House. 
He  therefore  attended  at  the  private  meeting,  in  which 
the  resolutions  moved  by  a  right  honorable  gentleman, 
[general  Conway]  v/ere  settled — resolutions  leading  to  the 
repeal.  The  next  day  he  voted  for  that  repeal  ;  and 
he  would  hav^e  spoken  for  it  too,  if  an  illness,  not  as 
was  then  given  out,  a  political,  but  to  my  knowledge,  a 
very  real  illness,  had  not  prevented  it. 

'"'"rhe  very  next  session,  as  the  fashion  of  this 
world  passeth  away,  the  repeal  began  to  be  in  as 
bad  an  odour  in  this  House  as  the  stamp  act  had  been  in 
the  session  before.  To  conform  to  the  temper  which 
began  to  prevail,  and  to  prevail  mostly  amongst  those 
most  in  power,  he  declared  very  early  in  the  win- 
ter, that  a  revenue  must  be  had  out  of  America.  In- 
stantly he  was  tied  down  to  his  engagements  by  some  who 
bad  no  objection  to  such  experimente,  when  made  at  the 


SPEAKER.  79 

cost  of  persons  for  whom  they  had  no  particular  regard. 
The  whole  body  of  courtiers  drove  him  onward.  They  al- 
ways talked  as  if  the  king  stood  in  a  humiliated  state, 
until  something  of  the  kind  should  be  done.  Here  this 
extraordinary  man,  then  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
found  himself  in  great  straits.  To  please  universally  was 
the  object  of  his  life  ;  but  to  tax  and  to  please,  no  more 
than  to  love  and  to  be  wise,  is  not  given  to  men.  How- 
ever, he  attempted  it.  To  render  the  tax  palatable  to  the 
partisans  of  American  revenues,  he  made  a  preamble  sta- 
ting the  necessity  of  such  revenue.  To  close  with  the 
American  distinction,  this  revenue  was  external^  or  port 
duty,  but  again  to  soften  it  to  the  other  party,  it  was  a 
duty  of  supphf.  To  gratify  the  colonists^  it  was  laid  on 
British  manufactures  ;  to  satisfy  the  merchants  of  B7-itain^ 
the  duty  was  trivial,  and  (except  that  on  tea,  which 
touched  only  the  devoted  East  India  Company)  on  none 
of  the  grand  objects  of  commerce.  To  counterwork  the 
American  contraband,  the  duty  on  tea  was  reduced  from 
a  shilling  to  three  pence.  But  to  secure  the  favor  of  those 
who  would  tax  America,  the  scene  of  collection  was 
changed,  and  with  the  rest,  it  was  levied  in  the  colonies. 
What  need  I  say  more  ?  This  fine  spun  scheme  hud  the 
usual  fate  of  all  exquisite  policy.  But  the  original  plan 
of  the  duties,  and  the  mode  of  executing  that  plan,  both 
arose  singly  and  solely  from  a  love  of  our  applause.  He 
was  truly  the  child  of  the  House.  He  never  thought,  did, 
or  said  any  thing,  but  with  a  view  to  you.  He  every  day 
adapted  himself  to  your  disposition  ;  and  adjusted  him- 
st.lf  before  it  as  at  a  looking  glass.  He  had  observed  (in- 
deed it  could  not  escape  him)  that  several  persons  infinite- 
ly his  inferiors  in  ail  respects  had  formerly  rendered 
themselves  considerable  in  this  House  by  one  method 
alone.  They  were  a  race  of  men  (I  hope  in  God  the  spe- 
cies is  extinct)  who  when  they  rose  in  their  place,  no  man 
living  could  divine,  from  any  known  adherence  to  par- 
ties, to  opinions,  or  to  principles,  from  any  order  or  sys- 
tem in  their  politics,  or  from  any  sequel  or  connection  in 
their  ideas,  what  part  they  were  going  to  take  in  any  de- 
bate. It  is  astonishing  how  much  this  uncertainty,  espe- 
cially at  critical  times,  called  the  attention  of  all  parties 
on  such  men.  All  eyes  were  fixed  on  them;  all  ears  open 
to  hear  them ;  each  party  gaped  and  looked  ahernately 


80  AMERICAN 

for  their  vote  almost  to  the  end  of  their  speeches.  While 
the  House  hung  in  this  uncertainty,  now  the  hear-himSy 
rose  from  this  side— -now they  rebellowed  from  the  other; 
and  that  party,  to  whom  at  length  they  fell  from  their 
tremulous  and  dancing  balance,  always  received  them  in 
a  tempest  of  applause.  The  fortune  of  such  men  was  a 
temptation  too  great  to  be  resisted  by  one,  to  whom  a 
single  whiff  of  incense,  withheld,  gave  much  greater  pain, 
than  he  received  delight  in  the  clouds  of  it,  which  daily 
rose  about  him  from  the  prodigal  superstition  of  his  in- 
numerable admirers.  He  was  a  candidate  for  contradic- 
tory honors  ;  and  his  great  aim  to  make  those  agree  in 
admiration  of  him,  who  never  agreed  in  any  thing  else. 
Hence  arose  this  unfortunate  act,  the  subject  of  this  day's 
debate,  from  a  disposition,  v/hich,  after  making  an  Ame- 
rican revenue  to  please  one,  repealed  it  to  please  others, 
and  again  revived  it  in  hopes  of  pleasing  a  third,  and  of 
catching  someihing  in  the  ideas  of  all.'' 

Extract  fro77i  the  same  speech^ — Burke. 

Let  us,  Sir,  embrace  some  system  or  other  before  we 
end  this  session.  Do  you  mean  to  tax  America,  and  to 
draw  a  productive  revenue  from  thence  ?  If  you  do, 
speak  out :  name,  fix,  ascertain  this  revenue  ;  settle  its 
quantity  ;  define  its  objects  ;  provide  for  its  collection  ; 
and  then  fight  when  you  have  something  to  fight  for.  If 
you  murder — rob  ;  if  you  kill,  take  possession  :  and  do 
rot  appear  in  the  character  of  madmen,  as  well  as  assas- 
sins, violent,  vindictive,  bloody,  and  tyrannical,  without 
an  object.   But  mav  better  counsels  guide  you  ! 

Again,  and  again,  revert  to  your  old  principles — seek 
peace  and  ensure  it — ^leave  America,  if  she  has  taxable 
matter  in  her,  to  tax  herself.  I  am  not  here  going  into 
the  distinctions  of  rights,  nor  attempting  to  mark  their 
boundaries.  I  do  not  enter  into  these  metaphysical  dis- 
tinctions ;  I  hate  the  very  sound  of  them.  Leave  the. 
Aiiiericans  as  they  anciently  stood,  and  these  distinctions, 
born  of  our  unhappy  contest,  will  die  along  with  it.  They 
and  we,  and  their  and  our  ancestors,  have  been  haf)py 
under  that  system.  Let  the  memory  of  all  actions,  in  con- 
tradiction to  that  good  old  mode,  on  both  sides,  be  ex- 
tinguished for  ever.  Be  content  to  bind  America  by  laws 
of  trade ;  you  have  always  done   it.     Let  this  be  your 


SPEAKER.  81 

reason  for  binding  their  trade.  Do  not  burthen  them  by 
taxes  ;  you  were  not  used  to  do  so  from  the  beginning. 
Let  this  be  your  reason  for  not  taxing.  These  are  the 
arguments  of  states  and  kingdoms.  Leave  the  rest  to 
the  schools  ;  for  there  only  they  may  be  discussed  with 
safety.  But  if,  intemperately,  unwisely,  fatally,  you  sophis- 
ticate and  poison  the  very  source  of  govtrnment,  by  ur- 
ging subtle  deductions,  and  consequences  odious  to  those 
you  govern,  from  the  unlimited  and  illimitable  nature  of 
supreme  sovereignty,  you  will  teach  them  by  these  means 
to  call  that  sovereignty  itself  in  question.  When  you  drive 
him  hard,  the  boar  will  surely  turn  upon  the  hunters.  If 
that  sovereignty  and  their  freedom  cannot  be  reconciled, 
which  will  they  take  ?  They  will  cast  your  sovereignty  in 
your  face.  No  body  will  be  argued  into  slavery.  Sir,  let 
the  "gentlemen  on  the  oth^^r  side  call  foith  all  their  ability  ; 
let  the  best  of  them  get  up,  and  tell  m(-,  what  one  charac- 
ter of  liberty  the  Americans  have,  and  what  one  brand  of 
slavery  they  are  free  from,  if  they  are  bound  in  their  pro- 
perty and  industry,  by  all  the  restraints  you  can  imagine 
on  commerce,  and  at  the  same  time  are  made  pack-hor- 
ses of  every  tax  you  choose  to  impose,  without  the  least 
share  in  granting  them.  When  they  bear  the  burthens  of 
unlimited  monopoly,  will  you  bring  them  to  bear  the  bur- 
thens of  unlimited  revenue  too  ?  The  Englishman  in  A- 
merica  will  feel  that  this  is  slavery — that  it  is  /i'^^r/slave- 
ry,  will  be  no  compensation,  either  to  his  feelings  or  his 
understanding. 

On  this  business  of  America,  I  confess  I  am  serious, 
even  to  sadness.  I  have  had  but  one  opinion  concerning 
it  since  I  sat,  and  before  I  sat  in  parliament.  The  noble 
lord  (lord  North)  will,  as  usual,  probably,  attribute  the 
part  taken  by  me  and  my  friends  in  this  business,  to  a 
desire  of  getting  his  places.  Let  him  enjoy  this  happy 
and  original  idea.  If  I  deprived  him  of  it,  I  should  take 
away  most  of  his  wit,  and  all  his  argument.  But  I  had 
rather  bear  the  brunt  of  all  his  wit  ;  and  indeed  blows 
much  heavier,  than  stand  answerable  to  God  for  embra- 
cing a  system  that  tends  to  the  destruction  of  some  of 
the  very  best  and  fairest  of  his  works.  But  I  know  the 
map  of  England,  as  well  as  the  noble  lord  or  as  any  other 
person  -,  and  I  know  that  the  vfay.I  take   is  not  the  road 


83  AMERICAN 

to  preferment.  My  excellent  and  honourable  friend  un- 
der me  on  the  floor,  (Mr.  Dowdeswell)  has  trod  that  road 
with  great  toil  for  upwards  of  twenty  years  together.  He 
is  not  yet  arrived  at  the  noble  lord's  destination.  Howe- 
ver, the  tracks  of  my  worthy  friend  are  those  I  have  ever 
wished  to  follow  ;  because  I  know  they  lead  to  honour. 
Long  may  we  tread  the  same  road  together  ;  whoever 
may  accompany  us,  or  whoever  may  laugh  at  us  on  our 
journey  !  I  honestly  and  solemnly  declare,  I  have  in  all 
seasons  adhered  to  the  system  of  1766,  for  no  other  rea- 
son, than  that  I  think  it  laid  deep  in  your  truest  interests 
— and  that,  by  limiting  the  exercise,  it  fixes  on  the  firm- 
est foundations,  a  real,  consistent,  well-grounded  authori- 
ty in  parliament.  Until  you  come  back  to  that  system> 
there  will  be  no  peace  for  England. 

Mr*  Burke  to  the  Electors  of  Bristol^  on  his  being  declared 
didy  elected^  Nov,  3^,  17/4. 

Gentlemen, — I  rannot  avoid  sympathising  strongly  with 
the  ft^elings  of  xht  gentleman  who  has  received  the  same 
honour  that  you  have  conferred  on  me.  If  he,  who  was 
bred  and  passed  his  whole  life  amongst  you  ;  if  he,  who 
through  the  easy  gradations  of  acquaintance,  friendship, 
and  esteem,  has  obtained  the  honour,  which  seems  of  it- 
self, naturally  Und  almost  insensibly,  to  meet  with  those, 
who,  by  the  even  tenor  of  pleasing  manners  and  social 
virtues,  slide  into  the  love  and  confidence  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  ; — if  he  cannot  speak  but  with  great  emotion  on 
this  subject,  surrounded  as  he  is  on  all  sides  with  his  old 
friends ;  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  excuse  me,  if  my 
real,  unaffected  embarrassment  prevents  me  from  expres- 
sing my  gratitude  to  you  as  I  ought. 

I  was  brought  hither  under  the  disadvantage  of  being 
unknown,  even  by  sight,  to  any  of  you.  No  previous  can- 
vass was  made  for  me.  I  was  put  in  nomination  after 
the  poll  was  opened.  I  did  not  appear  until  it  was  far 
advanced.  If,  under  all  these  accumulated  disadvantages, 
your  good  opinion  has  carried  me  to  this  happy  point  of 
success  ;  you  will  pardon  me,  if  I  can  only  say  to  you 
collectively,  as  I  said  to  you  individually,  simply  and 
plainly,  I  thank  you — I  am  obliged  to  you— I  am  not  in- 
sensible of  your  kindness. 


SPEAKER.  83 

I  owe  myself,  in  all  things,  to  all  the  freemen  of  this 
city.  My  particular  friends  have  a  demand  on  me,  that  I 
should  not  deceive  their  expectations.  Never  was  cause  or 
man  supported  with  more  constancy,  more  activity,  more 
spirit.  I  have  been  supported  with  a  zeal  indeed  and  heart- 
iness in  my  friends,  which,  (if  their  object  had  been  at  all 
proportioned  to  their  endeavours)  could  never  be  sufficient- 
ly commended.  They  supported  me  upon  the  most  liberal 
principles.  They  wished  that  the  members  for  Bristol 
should  be  chosen  for  the  city,  and  for  their  country  at  large, 
and  not  for  themselves. 

So  far  they  are  not  disappointed.  If  I  possess  nothing 
else,  1  am  sure  I  possess  the  temper  that  is  fit  for  your  ser- 
vice. I  know  nothing  of  Bristol,  but  by  the  favours  I  have 
received,  and  the  virtues  I  have  seen  exerted  in  it. 

I  shall  ever  retain,  what  I  now  feel,  the  most  perfect  and 
grateful  attachment  to  my  friends — and  I  have  no  enmities; 
no  resentment.  I  never  can  consider  fidelity  to  engage- 
ments, and  constancy  in  friendships,  but  with  the  highest 
approbation  ;  even  when  those  noble  qualities  are  employ- 
ed against  my  own  pretensions.  The  gendeman,  who  is  not 
fortunate  as  I  have  been  in  this  contest,  enjoys,  in  this  res- 
pect, a  consolation  full  of  honour  both  to  himself  and  to  his 
friends.  They  have  certainly  left  nothing  undone  for  his 
service. 

As  for  the  trifling  petulance,  which  the  rage  of  party 
stirs  up  in  little  minds,  though  it  should  shew  itself  even  in 
this  court,  it  has  not  made  the  slightest  impression  on  me. 
The  highest  flight  of  such  clamorous  birds  is  winged  in  an 
inferior  region  of  the  air.  We  hear  them,  and  we  look 
upon  them,  just  as  you,  gentlemen,  when  you  enjoy  the  se- 
rene air  on  your  lofty  rocks,  look  down  upon  the  gulls,  that 
skim  the  mud  of  your  river,  when  it  is  exhausted  of  its 
tide. 

31i\  Burke  to  the  Electors  of  Bristol,  on  the  rig-ht  of  in* 
structing  Representatives, 

I  am  sorry  I  cannot  conclude,  without  saying  a  word  on 
a  topic  touched  upon  by  my  worthy  colleague.  I  wish  that 
topic  had  been  passed  by  ;  at  a  time  when  I  have  so  little 
leisure  to  discuss  it.     But  since  he  has  thought  proper  to 


84  AMERICAN 

throw  it  out,  I  owe  you  a  clear  explanation  of  my  poor  senti- 
ments on  that  subject. 

He  tells  you,  that "  the  topic  of  instructions  has  occasion- 
ed much  altercation  and  uneasiness  in  this  city  j"  and  he  ex- 
presses himself  (if  I  understand  him  rightly)  in  favour  of 
the  coercive  authority  of  such  instructions. 

Certainly,  gentlemen,  it  ought  to  be  the  happiness  and 
glory  of  a  representative,  to  live  in  the  strictest  union,  the 
closest  correspondence,  and  the  most  unreserved  communi- 
cation with  his  constituents.  Their  wishes  ought  to  have 
great  weight  with  him;  their  opinion,  high  respect;  their  bu- 
siness unremitted  attention.  It  is  his  duty  to  sacrifice  his 
repose,  his  pleasures,  his  satisfactions,  to  theirs  ;  and  above 
all,  ever,  and  in  all  cases,  to  prefer  their  interest  to  his  own. 
But,  his  unbiassed  opinion,  his  mature  judgment,  his  enligh- 
tened conscience,  he  ought  not  to  sacrifice  to  you  ;  to  any 
man,  or  to  any  set  of  men  living.  These  he  does  not  derive 
from  yoyr  pleasure  ;  no,  nor  from  the  law  and  the  constitu- 
tion. They  are  a  trust  from  Providence,  for  the  abuse  of 
which  he  is  deeply  answerable.  Your  representative 
owes  you,  not  his  industry  only,  but  his  judgment ;  and  he 
betrays,  instead  of  serving  you,  if  he  sacrifices  it  to  your  o- 
pinion. 

My  worthy  colleague  says,  his  will  ought  to  be  subservi- 
ent to  yours.  If  that  be  all,  the  thing  is  innocent.  If  govern- 
ment were  a  matter  of  will  upon  any  side,  yours,  without 
question,  ought  to  be  superior.  But  government  and  legis- 
lation are  mutters  of  reason  and  judgment,  and  not  of  incli- 
nation ;  and,  what  sort  of  reason  is  that,  in  which  the  deter- 
mination precedes  the  discussion  ;  in  which  one  set  of  men 
deliberate,  and  another  decide  ;  and  where  those  who  form 
the  conclusion  are  perhaps  three  hundred  miles  distant  from 
those  who  hear  the  arguments  ? 

To  deliver  an  opinion,  is  the  right  of  all  men  ;  that  of 
constituents  is  a  weighty  and  respectable  opinion,  which  a 
representative  ought  always  to  rejoice  to  hear  ;  and  which 
he  ought  always  most  seriously  to  consider.  But  aiithori- 
tative  instructions  ;  mandates  issued,  which  the  member  is 
bound  blindly  and  imphcitU'  to  obey,  to  vote,  and  to  argue 
for,  though  contrary  to  the  clearest  conviction  of  his  judg- 
ment and  conscience  ;  these  are  things  utterly  unknown  to 


SPEAKER.  85 

the  laws  of  this  land,  and  which  arise  from  a  fundamen- 
tal mistake  of  the  whole  order  and  tenor  of  our  constitu- 
tion. 

Parliament  is  not  a  congress  of  ambassadors  from  dif- 
ferent and  hostile  interests  ;  which  interests  each  must 
maintain,  as  an  agent  and  advocate,  against  other  agents 
and  advocates  ;  but  parliament  is  a  deliberative  assembly  of 
one  nation,  with  one  interest,  that  of  the  whole  ;  where, 
not  local  purposes,  not  local  prejudices  ought  to  guide, 
but  the  general  good,  resulting  from  the  general  reason 
of  the  whole.  You  chuse  a  member  indeed  ;  but  when 
you  have  chosen  him,  he  is  not  member  of  Bristol,  but 
he  is  a  member  of  parliament.  If  the  local  constituent 
should  have  an  interest,  or  should  form  an  hasty  opinion, 
evidently  opposite  to  the  renl  good  of  the  rest  of  the  com- 
munity, the  member  for  that  place  ought  to  be  as  far,  as 
any  other,  from  any  endeavour  to  give  it  effect.  I  beg 
pardon  for  saying  so  much  on  this  subject.  I  have  been 
unwillingly  drawn  into  it  ;  but  I  shall  ever  use  a  respect- 
ful frankness  of  communication  with  you.  Your  faithful 
friend,  your  devoted  servant,  I  shall  be  to  the  end  of  my 
life  ;  a  flatterer  you  do  not  wish  for.  On  this  point  of  in- 
structions, however,  I  think  it  scarcely  possible,  we  ever 
can  have  any  sort  of  difference.  Perhaps  I  may  give  you 
too  much,  rather  than  too  little  trouble. 

From  the  first  hour  I  was  encouraged  to  court  your  fa- 
vour to  this  happy  day  of  obtaining  it,  I  have  never  pro- 
mised you  any  thing,  but  humble  and  persevering  endea- 
vors to  do  my  duty.  The  weight  of  that  duty,  I  confess, 
^  makes  me  tremble  ;  and  whoevcr^'Well  considers  what  it 
is,  of  all  things  in  the  world  will  fly  from  what  has  the 
least  likeness  to  a  positive  and  precipitate  engagement. 
To  be  a  good  member  of  parliament,  is,  let  me  tell  you, 
no  easy  task  ;  especially  at  this  time,  when  there  is  so 
strong  a  disposition  to  run  into  the  perilous  extremes  of 
servile  compliance  or  wild  popularit)'.  To  unite  circum- 
spection with  vigour,  is  absolutely  necessary  ;  but  it  is  ex- 
tremely difHcult.  We  are  now  members  for  a  rich  com- 
mercial city  ;  this  city,  however,  is  but  a  part  of  a  rich 
commercial  7iation^  the  interests  of  which  are  various, 
multiform,  and  intricate.  We  are  members  for  that  great 
nation,  which  however  is  itself  but  part  of  a  QXQ.?ii empire. 


86  AMERICAN 

extended  by  our  virtue  and  our  fortune  to  the  farthest  li- 
mits of  the  east  and  of  the  west.  All  these  wide-spread 
interests  must  be  considered  ;  must  be  compared  ;  must 
be  reconciled  if  possible.  We  are  members  for  a  free 
country  ;  and  surely  we  all  know,  that  the  machine  of  a 
free  constitution  is  no  simple  thing ;  but  as  intricate  and 
as  delicate,  as  it  is  valuable.  We  are  members  in  a  great 
and  ancient  monarchy  ;  and  we  must  preserve  religiously, 
the  true  legal  rights  of  the  sovereign,  which  form  the  key- 
stone that  binds  together  the  noble  and  well-constructed 
arch  of  our  empire  and  our  constitution.  A  constitution 
made  up  of  balanced  powers  must  ever  be  a  critical  thing. 
As  such  I  mean  to  touch  that  part  of  it  which  comes  with- 
in my  reach.  I  know  my  inability,  and  I  wish  for  sup- 
port from  every  quarter.  In  particular  I  shall  aim  at  the 
friendship,  and  shall  cultivate  the  best  correspondence,  of 
the  worthy  colleague  you  have  given  me. 

Lord  Chatham^s  Speech^  wherein  he  moves  that  the  troops 
be  withdrawn  from  Boston — the  Secretary  of  State  hav- 
i7ig  previously  laid  the  Official  Papers  on  American  af- 
fairs on  the  Table  of  the  House  of  Lords  ^January  20thy 
-1775, 

"  Too  well  apprised  of  the  contents  of  the  papers,  now 
at  last  laid  before  the  House,  I  shall  not  take  up  their 
lordships'  time  in  tedious  and  fruitless  investigations,  but 
shall  seize  the  first  moment  to  open  the  door  of  reconcile- 
ment ;  for  every  moment  of  delay  is  a  moment  of  dan- 
ger. As  I  have  not  the  honor  of  access  to  his  Maje«ty,  I 
will  endeavor  to  tranlfrnit  to  him,  through  the  constitu- 
tional channel  of  this  House,  my  ideas  of  America,  to 
rescue  him  from  the  mis-advice  of  his  present  ministers. 
America,  my  lords,  cannot  be  reconciled,  she  ought  not 
to  be  reconciled  to  this  country,  till  the  troops  of  Britain 
are  withdrawn  from  the  continent;  they  are  a  bar  to  all 
confidence  ;  they  are  a  source  of  perpetual  irritation  ; 
they  threnten  a  fatal  catastrophe.  How  can  America  trust 
you  with  tile  bayonet  at  her  breast  ?  How  can  she  suppose 
that  you  mean  less  than  bondage  or  death  ?  I  therefore, 
my  lords  move,  that  an  humble  address  be  presented  to 
his  Majesty,  most  humbly  to  advise  and  beseech  his  Ma- 
jesty, ''''  that,  in  order  to  open  the  v/ay  towards  an  happy 
settlement  of  the  dangeroua  iiciibles  in  America,  it  may 


SPEAKER.  87 

graciously  please  his  Majesty  to  transmit  orders  to  gene- 
ral Gage  for  removing  his  Majesty's  forces  from  the 
town  of  Boston."  I  know  not,  my  lords,  who  advised  the 
present  measures  :  I  know  not  who  advises  to  a  perseve- 
rance and  enforcement  of  them  ;  but  this  I  will  say,  that 
the  authors  of  such  advice  ought  to  answer  it  at  their  ut- 
most peril.  I  wish,  my  lords,  not  to  lose  a  day  in  this  ur- 
gent, pressing  crisis  :  an  hour  now  lost  in  allaying  fer- 
ments in  iVmerica  may  produce  years  of  calamity.  Never 
will  I  desert,  in  any  stage  of  its  progress,  the  conduct  of 
this  momentous  business.  Unless  fettered  to  my  bed  by 
the  extremity  of  sickness,  I  will  give  it  unremitting  atten- 
tion. I  will  knock  at  the  gates  of  this  sleeping  and  con- 
founded ministry,  and  will,  if  it  be  possible,  rouse  them 
to  a  sense  of  their  danger.  The  recal  of  your  army  I 
urge  as  necessarily  preparatory  to  the  restoration  of  your 
peace.  By  this  it  will  appear  that  you  are  disposed  to 
treat  amicably  and  equitably,  and,  to  consider,  revise,  and 
repeal,  if  it  should  be  found  necessary,  as  I  affirm  it  will, 
those  violent  acts  and  declarations  which  have  dissemina- 
ted confusion  throughout  the  empire.  Resistance  to  these 
acts  was  necessary,  and  therefore  just :  and  your  vain  de- 
clarations of  the  omnipotence  of  parliament,  and  your  im- 
perious doctrines  of  the  necessity  of  submission,  will  be 
found  equally  impotent  to  convince  or  enslave  America, 
who  feels  that  tyranny  is  equally  intolerable,  whether  it 
be  exercised  by  an  individual  part  of  the  Legislature,  or 
by  the  collective  bodies  which  compose  it.  The  means 
of  enforcing  this  thraldom  are  found  to  be  as  ridiculous 
and  weak  in  practice  as  they  are  unjl!st  in  principle.  Con- 
ceiving of  Generiil  Gage  as  a  man  of  humanity  and  under- 
standing ;  entertaining,  as  I  ever  must,  the  highest  respect 
and  affection  for  the  British  troops,  I  feel  the  most  anxious 
sensibility  for  their  situation,  pining  in  inglorious  inactivity. 
You  may  call  them  an  army  of  safety  and  defence,  but  they 
are  in  truth  an  army  of  impotence  and  contempt,  and  to 
make  the  folly  equal  to  the  disgrace,  they  are  an  army 
of  irritcition  and  vexation.  Allay  then  the  ferment  pre- 
vailing in  America  by  removing  the  obnoxious  hostile 
cause.  If  you  delay  concession  till  your  vain  hope  shall  be 
accomplished  of  triumphantly  dictating  reconciliation,  you 
delay  for  ever  :  the  force  of  this  country  would  be  dispro- 


88  AMERICAN 

portionably  exerted  against  a  brave,  generous,  and  united 
people,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  and  courage  in  their 
hearts — three  millions  of  people,  the  genuine  descendants 
of  a  valiant  and  pious  ancestry,  driven  to  those  deserts  by 
the  narrow  maxims  of  a  superstitious  tyranny.  But  is  the 
spirit  of  persecution  never  to  be  appeased  ?  Are  the  brave 
sons  of  those  brave  forefathers  to  inherit  their  sufferings, 
as  they  have  inherited  their  virtues  ?  Are  they  to  sustain 
the  infliction  of  the  most  oppressive  and  unexampled  se- 
verity, beyond  what  history  has  related,  or  poetry  has 


leignea  ■* 


-Rhadamanlhus  habetdurisslma  regna. 


Castigalque,  auditque  dolos. 
But  the  Americans  must  not  be  heard  j  they  have  been 
condemned  unheard.  The  indiscriminate  hand  of  ven- 
geance has  devoted  thirty  thousand  British  subjects  of  all 
ranks,  ages,  and  descriptions  to  one  common  ruin.  •  You 
may,  no  doubt,  destroy  their  cities  ;  you  may  cut  them  off 
from  the  superfluities,  perhaps  the  conveniences  of  life ; 
but,  my  lords,  they  will  still  despise  your  power,  for  they 
Irave  yet  remaining  their  woods  and  their  liberty.  What, 
though  you  march  from  town  to  town,  from  province  to 
province  ;  though  you  should  be  able  to  enforce  a  tempo- 
rary and  local  submission,  how  shall  you  be  able  to  secure 
the  obedience  of  the  country  you  leave  behind  you,  in 
your  progress  of  eighteen  hundred  miles  of  continent, 
animated  v^ith  the  same  spirit  of  liberty  and  of  resistance  ? 
This  universal  opposition  to  your  arbitrary  system  of  tax- 
ation might  have  been  foreseen  ;  it  was  obvious  from  the 
nature  of  things,  and  ffbm  the  nature  of  man,  and,  above 
all,  from  the  confirmed  habits  of  thinking,  from  the  spirit 
of  vvhiggism,  flourishing  in  America.  I'he  spirit  which 
ROW  pervades  America,  is  the  same  which  formerly  oppo- 
sed loar^s,  benevolences,  and  ship  money  in  this  country 
— the  same  spirit  which  roused  all  England  to  action  at 
the  revolution,  and  which  established  at  a  remote  jera 
your  liberties  on  the  basis  of  that  great  fundamental  max- 
im of  the  constitution,  that  no  subject  of  England  shall 
be  taxed  but  by  his  own  consent.  What  shall  oppose  diis 
spirit,  aided  by  the  congenial  flame  glowing  in  the  breast 
of  every  generous  Briton  ?  To  maintain  this  principle  is 
the  common  cause  of  the  whigs  on  the  other  side  of  the 


SPEAKER.  69 

Atlantic,  and  on  this  ;  it  is  liberty  to  liberty  engaged.  la 
this  great  cause  they  are  immoveably  allied :  it  is  the  al- 
liance of  God  and  nature,  immutable,  eternal,  fixed  as  the 
firmament  of  heaven.  As  an  Englishman,  I  recognise  to 
the  Americans  their  supreme  unalterable  right  of  pro- 
perty. As  an  American,  I  would  equally  recognise  to  Eng- 
land her  supreme  right  of  regulating  commerce  and  nav- 
igation. This  distinction  is  involved  in  the  abstract  na> 
ture  of  things  :  property  is  private,  individual,  absolute  : 
the  touch  of  another  annihilates  it.  Trade  is  an  extended 
and  complicated  consideration  .  it  reaches  as  far  as  ships 
can  sail,  or  v^inds  can  blow  :  it  is  a  vast  and  various  ma- 
chine. To  regulate  the  numberless  movements  of  its  se- 
veral parts,  and  to  combine  them  in  one  harmonious  ef- 
fect, for  the  good  of  the  whole,  requires  the  superintend- 
ing wisdom  and  energy  of  the  supreme  power  of  the  em- 
pire. On  this  grind  practical  distinction,  then,  let  us 
rest :  taxation  is  theirs  :  commercial  regulation  is  ourso 
As  to  the  metaphysical  refinements,  attempting  to  shew 
that  the  Americans  are  equally  free  from  legislative  con- 
trol and  commercial  restraint,  as  from  taxation  for  the 
purpose  of  revenue,  I  pronounce  them  futile,  frivolous, 
groundless.  When  your  lordships  have  perused  the  pa- 
pers transmitted  us  from  America,  when  you  consider 
the  dignity,  the  finnness,  and  the  wisdom  with  which  the 
Americans  have  acted,  you  cannot  but  respect  their  cause. 
History,  my  lords,  has  been  my  favorite  study  ;  and  m  the 
celebrated  writings  of  antiquity  have  I  often  admired  the 
patriotism  of  Greece  and  Kome  ;  but,  my  lords,  I  must 
declare  and  avow,  that  in  the  master-states  of  the  world, 
I  know  not  the  people,  nor  the  senate,  who  in  such  a  com- 
plication of  difficult  circumstances,  can  stand  in  preference 
to  the  Delegates  of  America,  assembled  in  General  Con- 
gress at  Philadelphia.  I  trust  it  is  obvious  to  your  lord- 
ships that  all  attempts  to  impose  servitude  upon  such 
men,  to  establish  despotism  over  such  a  mighty  continent- 
al nation,  must  be  vain,  must  be  futile.  Can  such  a  na- 
tional principled  union  be  resisted  by  the  tricks  of  office 
or  ministerial  manoeuvres  ?  Heaping  papers  on  your  ta- 
'  ble,  or  counting  your  majorities  on  a  division,  will  not 
avert  or  postpone  the  hour  of  danger.  It  must  arrive,  my 
lords,  unless  tiiese  fatal  acts  are  done  away :  it  must  ar» 

I  2 


90  AMERICAN 

rive,  in  all  its  horrors  ;  and  then  these  boastful  ministers, 
in  spite  of  all  their  confidence  and  all  their  manceuvres,  shall 
be  compelled  to  hide  their  heads.  But  it  is  not  repealing 
this  or  that  act  of  parliament ;  it  is  not  repealing  a  piece  of 
parchment,  that  can  restore  America  to  your  bosom  :  you 
must  repeal  her  fears  and  resentments,  and  then  you  may 
hope  lor  her  love  and  gratitude.  But  now,  insulted  with 
an  armed  force,  irritated  with  an  hostile  array  before  her 
eyes,  her  concessions,  if  you  could  force  them,  would  be 
suspicious,  and  insecure.  But  it  is  more  than  evident  that 
you  cannot  force  them  to  your  unworthy  terms  of  submis- 
sion :  it  is  impossible :  we  ourselves  shall  be  forced  ulti- 
mately to  retract :  let  us  retract  while  we  can,  not  when 
we  must.  I  repeat  it,  my  lords,  we  shall  one  day  he  forced 
to  undo  these  violent  acts  of  oppression  :  they  must  be  re- 
pealed ;  you  will  repeal  them.  I  pledge  myseif  for  it,  that 
you  will  in  the  end  repeal  them  :  I  stake  my  reputation 
on  it :  I  will  consent  to  be  taken  for  an  ideot  if  they  are 
not  repealed.  Avoid  then  this  humiliating,  disgraceful 
necessity.  With  a  dignity  becoming  your  exalted  situation, 
make  the  first  advances  to  concord,  to  peace  and  to  happi- 
nt  ss.  Concession  comes  with  better  grace  and  more  salu- 
tary effect  from  superior  power :  it  reconciles  superiority 
of  power  with  the  feelings  of  man,  and  establishes  solid 
confidence  on  the  foundations  of  affection  and  gratitude. 
On  ihe  other  hand,  every  danger  and  every  hazard  im- 
pend to  deter  you  from  perseverance  in  the  present  ruinous 
Hieiisures  :  foreign  war  hanging  ovtr  your  heads  by  a 
slight  and  brittle  thread — France  and  Spain  watching  your 
conduct,  and  waiting  for  the  maturity  of  your  errors,  with 
a  vigilant  eye  to  America  and  the  temper  of  your  colonies 
more  than  to  their  own  concerns,  be  they  what  they  may. 
To  conclude,  my  lords,  if  the  ministers  thus  persevere  in 
misadvising  and  misleading  the  King,  I  will  not  say,  that 
they  can  alienate  the  affections  of  his  subjects  from  the 
crown  ;  but  I  aflirm,  they  will  make  the  crown  not  worth 
his  wearing.  I  will  not  say  that  the  king  is  betrayed,  but  I 
will  pronounce,  that  the  kingdom  is  undone." 


SPEAKER.  91 

Extract  from  Lord  CamderCs  Speech  on  seconding  Lord 
Chatha7n's  motion* 

"  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  are  grand  and  sounding 
names,  but  King,  Lords,  and  Commons  may  become  ty- 
rants as  well  as  others.  Tyranny  in  one  or  more  is  the 
same :  it  is  as  lawful  to  resist  the  tyranny  of  many,  as  of 
one  :  this  has  been  a  doctrine  known  and  acted  upon  in 
this  country  for  ages.  When  the  famous  Selden  was  ask- 
ed, by  what  statute  resistance  to  tyranny  could  be  justi- 
fied ?  his  reply  was  ;  It  is  to  he  justified  by  the  custom  of 
England^  which  is  apart  of  the  laxv  of  the  land.  I  will  af- 
firm, my  lords,  not  only  as  a  statesman,  politician,  and  phi- 
losopher, but  as  a  common  lawyer,  that  you  have  no  right 
to  tax  America.  No  man,  agreeably  to  the  principles  of 
natural  or  civil  liberty,  can  be  divested  of  any  part  of  his 
property  without  his  consent  :  and  whenever  oppression 
begins,  resistance  becomes  lawful  and  right." 

Extract  from  Mr,  Burke''s  speech  on  American  affairs^  in 
March^  177  S, 

As  to  the  wealth  which  the  colonies  have  drawn  from 
the  sea  by  their  fisheries,  you  had  all  that  matter  fully 
opened  at  your  uar.  You  surely  thought  those  acquisi- 
tions of  value,  for  they  seemed  even  to  excite  your  envv; 
and  yet  the  spirit,  by  which  that  enterprising  employment 
has  been  exercised,  ought  rather,  in  my  opinion,  to  have 
raised  your  esteem  and  admiration.  And  pray,  sir,  what 
in  the  world  is  equal  to  it  ?  Pass  by  the  other  parts,  and 
look  at  the  manner  in  which  the  people  of  New-England 
have  of  late  carried  on  the  whale  fishery.  Whilst  we  fol- 
low them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  of  ice,  and  be- 
hold them  penetrating  into  the  deepest  frozen  recesses  of 
Hudson's  Bay,  and  Davis's  Straits  ;  whilst  we  are  looking 
for  them  beneath  the  arctic  circle, \ve  hear  that  they  have 
pierced  into  the  opposite  region  of  polar  cold,  that  they  are 
at  the  antipodes,  and  engaged  under  the  frozen  serpent  of 
the  south.  Falkland  island,  which  seemed  too  remote 
and  romantic  an  object  for  the  grasp  of  national  ambition, 
is  but  a  stage  and  resting-place  in  the  progress  of  their 
victorious  industry.  Nor  is  the  equinoctial  heat  more  dis- 
couraging to  them,  than  the  accumulated  winter  of  both 


92  AMERICAN 

the  poles.  We  know  that  whilst  some  of  them  draw  the 
line  and  strike  the  harpoon  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  others 
run  the  longitude,  and  pursue  their  gigantic  game  along 
the  coast  of  Brazih  No  sea  but  what  is  vexed  by  their 
fisheries :  no  climate  that  is  not  witness  to  their  toils.—- 
Neither  the  perseverance  of  Holland,  nor  the  activity  of 
France,  nor  the  dexterous  and  firm  sagacity  of  English  en- 
terprise, ever  carried  this  most  perilous  mode  of  hardy  in- 
dustry to  the  extent  to  which  it  has  been  pushed  by  this  re- 
cent people  ;  a  people  who  are  still,  as  it  were  but  in  the 
gristle,  and  not  yet  hardened  into  the  bone  of  manhood. 
When  I  contemplate  these  things  ;  when  I  know  that  the 
colonies  in  general  owe  little  or  nothing  to  any  care  of  ours, 
and  that  they  are  not  squeezed  into  this  happy  form  by 
the  constraints  of  watchful  and  suspicious  government^ 
but  that  through  a  wise  and  salutary  neglect,  a  generous 
nature  has  been  suffered  to  take  her  own  way  to  perfection; 
when  I  reflect  upon  these  effects,  when  I  see  how  profita- 
ble they  have  bt  en  to  us,  I  feel  all  the  pride  of  power  sink, 
and  all  presumption  in  the  wisdom  of  human  contrivances 
melt,  and  die  away  within  me.  My  rigour  relents.  I  par- 
don something  to  the  spirit  of  liberty. 

Extract  from  Mr,  Burke's  speech  on  Conciliation  with  Am- 
erica, 

A  revenue  from  America  transmitted  hither — do  not 
delude  yourselves — you  never  tan  receive  it — No,  not  a 
shilling.  We  have  experience  that  from  remote  countrres, 
it  is  not  to  be  expected.  If  when  you  attempted  to  ex- 
tract revenue  from  }5engal,  you  were  obliged  to  return  in 
loan  what  you  had  taken  in  imposition  ;  what  can  you  ex- 
pect from  North  America  ?  for  certainly,  if  ever  there  was 
a  country  qualified  to  produce  wealth,  it  is  India;  or  an 
institution  fit  for  the  transmission,  it  is  the  East-India 
Company.  America  has  none  of  these  aptitudes.  If  A- 
merica  gives  you  taxable  objects,  on  which  you  lay  your 
duties  here,  and  gives  you,  at  the  same  time,  a  surplus  by 
a  foreign  sale  of  her  commodities  to  pay  the  duties  on  these 
©bjects  which  you  tr.xat  home,  she  has  performed  her  part  to 
the  British  revenue.  But  with  regard  to  her  own  internal 
establishments,  she  may,  I  doubt  not  she  will,  contribute 
m  moderation.     I  say  in  moderation- ,  for  she  ought  not  to 


SPEAKER.  9J 

be  permitted  to  exhaust  herself.  She  ought  to  be  reserved 
to  a  war  ;  the  weight  of  which,  with  the  enemies  that  we 
are  most  likely  to  have,  must  be  considerable  in  her  quar- 
ter of  the  globe.  There  she  may  serve  you,  and  serve  yoa 
essentially. 

For  that  service,  for  all  service,  whether  of  revenue, 
trade,  or  empire,  my  trust  is  in  her  interest  in  the  British 
constitution.  My  hold  of  the  colonies  is  in  the  close  affec- 
tion which  grows  from  common  names,  frum  kindred 
blood,  from  similar  privileges,  and  equal  protection.  These 
are  ties,  which,  though  light  as  air,  are  as  strong  as  links 
of  iron.  Let  the  colonies  always  keep  t^^*^  ^^^^  ^^  their 
civil  rights  associated  with  your  government ; — they  will 
cling  nnd  grapple  to  you  ;  and  no  force  under  heave^  will 
have  power  to  tear  them  from  their  allegiance.  But  let 
it  be  once  understood,  that  your  government  may  be  one 
thing,  and  their  privileges  another  ;  that  these  two  things 
may  exist  without  any  mutual  relation  ;  the  cement  is 
^one  ;  the  cohesion  is  loosened  ;  and  every  thing  hastens 
to  decay  and  dissolution.  As  long  as  you  have  the  wis- 
dom to  keep  the  sovereign  authority  of  this  country  as  the 
sanctuary  of  liberty,  the  sacred  temple  consecrated  to  our 
common  faith,  wherever  the  chosen  race  and  sons  of  Eng- 
land worship  freedom,  they  will  turn  their  faces  towards 
you.  I'he  more  they  multiply,  the  more  friends  you  will 
have  ;  the  more  ardently  they  love  liberty,  the  more  per- 
fect v/ ill  be  their  obedience.  Slavery  they  can  have  any 
where.  It  is  a  weed  that  grows  in  every  soil.  They  mav 
have  it  from  Spain,  they  may  have  it  from  Prussia.  But 
until  you  become  lost  to  all  feeling  of  }  our  true  interest 
and  your  natural  dignity,  freedom  they  can  have  from 
none  but  you.  This  is  the  commodity  of  price,  of  which 
you  have  the  monopoly.  This  is  the  true  act  of  naviga- 
tion, which  binds  to  you  the  commerce  of  the  colonies, 
and  through  them  s  cures  to  you  the  v.-ealth  of  the  work). 
Deny  them  this  p«rLicipation  of  freedom,  and  you  break 
that  sole  bond,  which  originally  made,  and  must  still  pre- 
serve, the  unity  of  trie  empire.  Do  not  entertain  so  weak 
an  imagination,  as  ihat  your  registers  and  your  bonds, 
your  aiTidavits  and  your  sufferances,  your  cockets  and  your 
clearances,  are  what  form  the  great  securities  of  your  com- 
merce.    D:)  not  dreau\  that  your  letters  of  ofllce,  and  vour 


94  AMERICAN 

instructions,  and  your  suspending  clauses,  are  the  things 
that  hold  together  the  great  contexture  of  this  mysterious 
whole.  These  things  do  not  make  your  government.  Dead 
instruments,  passive  tools  as  they  are,  it  is  the  spirit  of  the 
English  communion,  that  gives  all  their  life  and  efficacy 
to  them.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  English  constitution, 
which,  infused  through  the  mighty  mass,  pervades,  feeds, 
unites,  invigorates,  vivifies,  every  part  of  the  empire,  even 
down  to  the  minutest  member. 

Is  it  not  the  same  virtue  which  does  every  thing  for  us 
here  in  England  ?  Do  you  imagine,  then,  that  it  is  the 
land  tax  act  which  raises  your  revenue  ?  that  it  is  the  an- 
nual vote  in  the  committee  of  supply,  which  gives  you 
your  army  ?  or  that  it  is  the  mutiny  bill  which  inspires  it 
with  bravery  and  discipline?  No!  Surely  no!  It  is  the 
love  of  the  people  ;  it  is  their  attachment  to  their  govern- 
ment from  the  sense  of  the  deep  stake  they  have  in  such 
a  glorious  institution,  which  gives  you  your  army  and 
your  navy,  and  infuses  into  both  that  liberal  obedience, 
without  which  your  army  would  be  a  base  rabble,  and 
your  navy  nothing  but  rotten  timber. 

All  this,  I  know  well  enough,  will  sound  wild  and  chi- 
merical to  the  profane  herd  of  those  vulgar  and  mechani- 
cal politicians,  who  have  no  place  among  us  ;  a  sort  of 
people  who  think  that  nothing  exists  but  what  is  gross 
and  material ;  and  who,  therefore,  far  from  being  qualified 
to  be  the  directors  of  the  great  movement  of  empire,  are 
not  fit  to  turn  a  wheel  in  the  machine.  But  to  men  truly 
initiated  and  rightly  taught,  these  ruling  and  master  prin- 
ciples, which  in  the  opinion  of  such  men  as  I  have  men- 
tioned, have  no  substantial  existence,  are  in  truth  every 
thing,  and  all  in  all.  Magnanimity  in  politics  is  not  sel- 
dom the  truest  wisdom  ;  and  a  great  empire  and  little 
minds  go  ill  together.  If  we  are  conscious  of  our  situa- 
tion, and  glow  with  zeal  to  fill  our  places  as  becomes  our 
station  and  ourselves,  we  ought  to  auspicate  all  our  public 
proceedings  on  America,  with  the  old  warning  of  the 
church,  Sursi^m  core/a  /  We  ought  to  elevate  our  minds 
to  the  greatness  of  that  trust  to  which  the  order  of  Provi- 
dence has  called  us.  By  adverting  to  the  dignity  of  this 
high  calling,  our  ancestors  have  turned  a  savage  wilder- 
ness into  a  glorious  empire  ;  and  have  made  the  most  ex- 


SPEAKER.  95 

tensive,  and  the  only  honorable  conquests  ;  not  by  des- 
troying, but  by  promoting,  the  wealth,  the  number,  the 
happiness,  of  the  human  race.  Let  us  get  an  American 
revenue  as  we  have  got  an  American  empire.  English 
privileges  have  made  it  all  that  it  is  ;  English  privileges 
alone  will  make  it  all  it  can  be. 

In  full  confidence  of  this  unalterable  truth,  I  now  (quod 
felix faustumque  sit^J — lay  the  first  stone  of  the  temple  of 
peace ;  and  I  move  you, 

"  That  the  colonies  and  plantations  of  Great  Britain  in 
North  America,  consisting  of  fourteen  separate  govern- 
ments, and  containing  two  millions  and  upwards  of  free 
inhabitants,  have  not  had  the  liberty  and  privilege  of  elect- 
ing and  sending  any  knights  and  burgesses,  or  others,  to 
represent  them  in  the  high  court  of  parliament." 

Speech  of  the  Marquis  of  Granby  on  American  affairs, 

I  rise,  to  trouble  the  house  with  a  few  words  on  the  bill 
now  before  it.  1  have  sat,  sir,  during  the  course  of  two 
divisions,  without  taking  any  part,  even  so  much  as  giv- 
ing a  silent  vote  on  any  American  question  ;  because,  sir, 
as  I  will  fairly  confess  to  you,  I  entered  with  prejudices 
against  the  system  administration  was  pursuing  :  I  thought 
it  was  but  justice  to  hear  the  argument  that  might  be  ur- 
ged on  both  sides,  to  compare  those  arguments,  and  draw 
my  opinion  from  that  comparison.  As  to  the  bill  imme- 
diately the  object  of  our  consideration,  I  think  it  in  every 
respect  so  arbitrary,  so  oppressive,  and  so  totally  founded 
on  principles  of  resentment,  that  I  am  exceedingly  happy 
at  having  this  public  opportunity  of  bearing  my  testimony 
against  it,  in  the  strongest  manner  I  am  able.  In  God's 
name,  what  language  are  you  now  holding  out  to  Ame- 
rica ?  Resign  your  property,  divest  yourselves  of  your 
privileges  and  freedom,  renounce  every  thing  that  can 
make  life  comfortable,  or  we  will  destroy  your  commerce, 
we  will  involve  your  country  in  all  the  miseries  of  fa- 
mine ;  and  if  you  express  the  sensations  of  men  at  such 
harsh  treatment,  we  will  then  declare  you  in  a  state  of  re- 
bellion, and  put  yourselves  and  your  families  to  fire  and 
sword.  And  yet,  sir,  the  noble  lord  on  the  floor  (lord 
North)  has  told  this  house  that  a  reconciliation  is  the  sole 
object  of  his  wishes.     I  hope  the  noble  lord  will  pardon 


96  AMERICAN 

me,  if  I  doubt  the  perfect  sincerity  of  those  wishes  ;  at 
least,  sir,  his  actions  justify  my  doubt ;  for  every  circum- 
stance in  his  whole  conduct,  with  regard  to  America,  ha^ 
directly  militated  against  his  present  professions  ;  and 
what,  sir,  must  the  Americans  conclude  ?  Whilst  you  are 
ravaging  their  coasts  and  extirpating  their  commerce,  and 
are  withheld  only  by  your  impotence  from  spreading  fresh 
ruin,  by  the  sword,  can  they,  sir,  suppose  such  chastise- 
ment is  intended  to  promote  a  reconciliation,  and  that  you 
mean  to  restore  to  their  forlorn  country  those  liberties  you 
deny  to  their  present  possession,  and  in  the  insolence  of 
persecution,  are  compassing  earth  and  seas  to  destroy  ? 
You  can  with  no  more  justice  compel  the  Americans  to 
your  obedience,  by  the  operation  of  the  present  measures, 
by  making  use  of  their  necessities,  and  withholding  from 
them  that  commerce  on  which  their  existence  depends, 
than  a  ruffian  can  found  an  equitable  claim  to  my  posses- 
sions, when  he  forcibly  enters  my  house,  and  with  a  dag- 
ger at  mv  throat,  or  a  pistol  at  my  breast,  makes  me  seal 
deeds,  which  will  convey  to  him  my  estate  and  property. 
I  have  a  very  clear,  a  very  adequate  idea  of  rebellion, 
at  least  according  to  my  own  principles  ;  and  those  are  the 
principles  on  which  the  revolution  was  founded.  It  is  not 
against  whom  a  war  is  directed,  but  it  is  the  justice  of  that 
war  that  does,  or  does  not,  constitute  rebellion.  If  the  in- 
nocent part  of  mankind  must  tamely  relinquish  their  free- 
dom, their  property,  and  every  thing  they  hold  dear,  mere- 
ly to  avoid  the  imputation  of  rebellion,  I  beg,  sir,  it  may  be 
considered  what  kind  of  peace  and  loyalty  there  will  then 
exist  in  the  world,  which  consists  only  in  violence  and  ra- 
pine, and  is  merely  to  be  maintained  for  the  benefit  of  rob- 
bers and  oppressors.  I  hope,  sir,  I  shall  be  believed  when 
I  assure  you  that  I  am  as  warm  a  friend  to  the  interests  of 
my  country  as  any  man  in  this  house  ;  but  then  it  must  be 
understood,  when  those  interests  are  founded  injustice.  I 
am  not  attached  to  any  particular  acre  of  land.  The  farmer 
in  Cumberland  or  Durham  is  as  little  connected  with  me 
as  the  peasant  in  America.  It  is  not  the  ground  a  man 
stands  on  that  attaches  me  to  him  ;  it  is  not  the  air  he 
breathes  tb:it  connects  me  with  him  ;  but  it  is  the  princi- 
ples of  that  man,  those  independent,  those  generous  prin- 
ciples of  liberty  which  he  professes,  co-operating  with  my 


SPEAKER.  97 

own,  which  call  me  forth  as  his  advocate,  and  make  me 
gloryfm  bting  considered  his  friend.  As  for  myself,  Sir, 
I  am  not  in  the  least  ashamed  to  avow  that  this  is  the 
source  of  my  attachment  to  a  noble  lord,  who  has  been, 
in  my  opinion,  very  unjustly  reflected  on  in  the  course  of 
this  debate  (I  mean  lord  Chatham.)  I  am  not  even  per- 
sonally acquainted  wiih  the  noble  lord  ;  I  do  not  know  the 
inconsistencies  of  which  he  stands  accused  :  but  this,  S<r, 
I  know,  I  shall  not  support  his  inconsistencies  ;  I  shall  only- 
support  him  in  those  principles  which  have  raised  his 
name  to  the  elevation  on  which  it  is  now  placed  in  this 
country,  and  have  so  deservedly  procured  him  the  love 
and  admiration  of  his  fellow  citizens. 

From  the  fullest  conviction  of  my  soul,  I  disclaim  ev- 
ery idea  both  of  policy  and  right,  internally  to  lax  Ame- 
rica. I  disavow  the  whole  system  ;  it  is  commenced  in 
iniquity  ;  it  is  pursued  with  resentment ;  and  it  cnn  ter- 
minate in  nothmg  but  blood.  Under  whatever  shape  in  fu- 
turity it  may  be  revived,  by  whomsoever  produced  und 
supported,  it  shall,  from  me,  meet  the  most  constant,  de- 
termined, and  invariable  opposition. 


LordEffn^haii-Cs  Speech  in  the  house  of  Lords  on  resigmng- 
h'ls  mUitary  commission^  'rather  than  bear  arms  ag^iinst 
America^  1775. 

"  I  confess,  I  wish  to  avoid  the  discussion  of  our  right 
to  such  a  power  as  wear,  contending  tor,  that  is  to  say, 
a  power  of  taxing  a  s<  t  of  sul)jects  who  are  not  represent- 
ed amongst  us,  and  who  have  full  power  to  tax  them- 
selves in  thr  ordinary  and  constitutional  manner.  Were 
any  particular  province  among  the  Americans  to  refuse 
grants  of  money  in  proportion  to  others,  or  to  commii  any 
act  in  abuse  of  their  charters,  I  thi;.k  that  supreme  con- 
troiling  power,  v  hich  the  province  in  question  allows  in 
its  lull  extent  wouUl  give  us  thr  cha)-ge,  Nc  quid detrimen- 
ti  respublica  capiat'.  And  in  th-.t  c-se,  my  lords,  ai.«  ost 
tht  whf)le  empire  would  be  united  against  the  wrorg- 
headed  tew,  who  would  soon  be  brought  to  reason.  But 
I  nil  satisfied,  that  without  such  uccessitv  we  have  no 
more  power  of  taxation  in  that  country,  than   a'   Ronvui 

K 


S8  AMERICAN 

dictator  had  to  begin  his  office  with  a  declaratioj^  that 
his  power  should  be  perpetual,  and  was  necessaryfn  the 
ordinar>  businrss  of  government.  Tiierefore,  my  lords, 
"whatever  has  been  done  by  the  Americans,  I  must  deem 
it  the  mere  consequence  of  our  unjust  demands.  They 
have  come  to  you  with  fair  arguments  ;  you  have  refused 
to  hear  them  :  they  have  made  the  moat  respectful  re- 
monstrances ;  you  answer  them  with  bills  of  pains  and  pe- 
nalties. They  know  thty  ought  to  be  free  ;  you  tell  them 
they  shall  be  slaves.  Is  it  then  a  wonder,  if  they  say  in 
despair,  "  For  the  short  remainder  of  our  lives  we  will  be 
free  !"  Is  there  one  auiong  your  lordships,  who,  in  a  si- 
tuation similar  to  that  which  I  have  described,  would  not 
resolve  the  same  ?  If  there  could  be  such  an  one,  I  am 
sure  he  ought  not  to  bt-  here. 

"  To  bring  the  history  down  to  the  present  scene — here 
are  two  armies  in  presence  of  each  other ;  armies  of  bro- 
thers and  countrymen  ;  each  dreading  the  event,  yet  each 
feeling  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  most  trifling  accident, 
a  private  dispute,  a  drunktrn  fray  in  any  public  house  m 
Boston,  in  short,  a  nothing,  to  cause  the  sword  to  be 
drawn,  and  to  plunge  the  whole  country  into  all  the  hor- 
rors of  blood,  flames,  and  parricide  l^ 

"  In  this  dreadful  moment,  a  set  of  men  more  wise  and 
moderate  than  the  rtst,  excrt  themselves  to  bring  us  all 
to  reason.  They  state  their  claims  and  their  grievances  ; 
nay,  if  any  thing  can  be  proved  by  law  and  history,  they 
prove  ihtm.  They  propose  oblivion  ;  they  makt  the  first 
concession.  We  treat  them  with  contempt ;  we  prefer 
poverty,  blood,  and  servitude,  to  wealth,  happiness,  and 
liberty. 

"  What  weight  these  few  observations  may  have,  I  do 
not  know  ;  but  the  capciour  your  lordships  have  indulged 
me  with,  requires  a  confession  on  my  purt  which  -  ay  still 
lessen  that  weight:  I  must  own,  I  am  not  personally  dis- 
interested. 

"  Ev.r  since  I  was  of  an  age  to. have  any  ambition  at 
all,  my  highest  has  been  to  serve  my  country  m  a  military 
capacity.  If  ihert  was  on  earth  an  event  I  dreaded,  it 
Was  to  see  this  country  so  situated,  as  to  make  that  pro- 
fession iucoiiipatible  with  my  duty  as  a  citizen. 


SPEAKER.  99 

"  That  period,  is,  in  my  opinion,  arrived  ;  and  I  have 
thought  myself  bound  to  relinquish  the  hopes  I  had  form- 
ed, by  a  resignation,  which  appeared  to  me  the  only  me- 
thod of  avoiding  the  guilt  of  enslaving  my  country,  and 
er^sl:)ruing  my  hands  in  the  blood  of  her  sons. 

'•*'  Wht  n  the  duties  of  a  soldier  and  citizen  become  Incon- 
sistent, I  sball  always  think  myself  obliged  to  sink  the 
character  of  the  soldier  in  that  of  the  citizen,  till  such 
time  as  those  duties  shall,  by  the  malice  of  our  real  ene- 
mies, become  again  united. 

''•  It  is  no  sm  dl  sacrifice  which  a  man  makes  who  gives 
up  his  protVssion  ;  but  it  is  a  much  greater,  when  a  pre- 
dilection, strengthened  by  habit,  has  given  him  so  strong  an 
att  ichment  to  his  profession  as  I  feel.  I  have,  however, 
this  consolation)  that  by  making  that  sacrifice,  I  at  le  ist 
giv>  to  my  country  an  unequivocal  proof  of  the  sincerity 
ot  my  principles." 


Lord  Chatham  on  an  address  to  the  king, 

MY  Lords,  I  most  cheerfully  agree  with  the  first  para- 
graph of  the  address  moved  by  the  noble  lord.  I  would 
even  go  and  prostrate  myself  at  the  foot  of  the  throne, 
were  it  necessary^  to  testify  my  joy  at  any  ev  nt  which 
may  promise  to  add  to  the  domestic  felicity  of  my  so- 
vereign ;  at  any  thing  which  may  seem  to  give  a  further 
security  to  the  permanent  enjoyment  of  the  religious  and 
civil  rights  of  my  fellow  subjects  ;  but  while  I  do  this, 
I  must  at  the  same  time  express  my  strongest  disappro- 
bation of  the  address,  and  the  fatal  measures  which  it  ap- 
proves. My  lords,  it  was  customary  for  the  king,  on 
similar  occasions,  not  to  lead  parliament,  but  to  be  gui- 
ded by  it.  It  was  usual,  1  say,  my  Ibrds,  to  ask  the  ad- 
vice of  this  house,  the  hereditary  great  council  of  the 
nation,  not  to  dictate  to  it.  My  lords,  what  does  this 
speech  say  ?  "It  tells  you  of  measures  already  agreed  up- 
on, and  very  cavalierly  desires  your  concurrence.  It 
indeed,  talks  of  wisdom  and  support ;  it  counts  on  the 
certainty  of  events  yet  in  the  womb  of  time  ;  but  in  point 
of  plan  and  design,  it  is  peremptory  and  dictatorial.  Is 
this  a  proper  language,  fit  to  be  endured  I  Is  this  high 


100  ^  AMERICAN 

pretention  to  over-rule  the  dispositions  of  Providence 
itscif,  and  the  wil)  and  judgment  of  parliament,  justified 
b}  iny  former  conduct  or  precedent  ?  No,  my  lords,  it 
is  the  language  of  an  ili-founded  confidence  :  a  confidence, 
ni\  lords,  I  will  be  bold  to  say,  supported  hitherto  only 
by  a  succession  of  disappointments,  disgraces,  and  defeats. 
I  am  astonished  how  any  minister  dare  advise  his  majes- 
ty to  hold  such  a  language  to  your  lordships :  I  would  be 
glad  to  see  ihe  minister  that  dare  avow  it  in  his  place. 
What  is  the  import  of  this  extraordinary  application  ? 
Vvhat,  but  an  unlimited  confidence  in  those  who  have  hi- 
therto misguided,  deceived,  and  misled  you?  It  is,  I 
maintain,  unlimited  :  it  desires  you  to  grant  not  what 
you  may  be  satisfied  is  necessary,  but  what  his  majesty's 
r»ir.isters  may  choose  to  thir-k  so ;  troops,  fleets,  treaties, 
aiid  subsidies,  not  yet  revealed.  Should  your  lordships 
agree  to  the  present  address,  you  will  stand  pledged  to 
all  this;  you  cannot  retreat  ;  it  binds  you  to  the  conse- 
quences be  they  what  they  may.  My  lords,  whoever 
guve  this  pernicious  counsel  to  the  king  ought  to  be  made 
answerable  to  this  house,  and  to  the  nation  at  large  for  the 
consequences  :  the  precedent  is  dangerous  and  unconsti- 
tutional. Who,  1  say,  has  had  the  temerity  to  tell  the 
king  that  his  affairs  are  in  a  prosperous  condition?  and 
who,  of  course,  is  the  author  of  those  assurances  which 
are  this  day  given  you,  in  order  to  mislead  you  ?  My 
lords,  v'hat  is  the  present  state  of  this  nation  ?  It  is  big 
with  difficulty  and  danger  ;  it  is  full  of  the  most  destruc- 
tive circumstances  :  I  say,  my  lords,  it  is  truly  perilous. 
W'hat  are  thes°  little  islands.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ? 
What  is  your  defence  ?  Nothing.  What  is  the  condition 
of  yotir  formidable  and  inveterate  enemies,  the  two  lead- 
inn-  branches  of  the  house  of  Bourbon  ?  They  have  a  for- 
midable navy:  I  say,  my  lords,  their  intentions  are  hos- 
tile :  1  knov/  it:  their  coasts  are  lined  with  troops,  from 
the  furthermost  part  of  the  coast  of  Spain  up  to  Dunkirk. 
W  hat  have  you  to  oppose  them  ?  Not  five  thousand  men  in 
this  island  ;  nor  more  in  Ireland  ;  nor  above  twenty  ships  of 
the  line  manned  and  fit  for  service.  My  lords,  without 
peace,  without  .-n  immediate  restoration  of  tranquillity, 
this  nation  is  ruined.  What  has  been  the  conduct  of  your 
How  have  they  cndeiivoiucd  to  conciliate  the 


SPEAKER.      •  101 

afFection  and  obedience  of  their  American  brethren  ?  They 
have  gone  to  Germany  ;  they  have  sought  the  alliance  and 
assistance  of  every  pitiful,  beggarly,  insignificant,  paltry 
German  prince,  to  cut  the  throats  of  their  loyal,  brave  and 
injured  brethren  in  Americfi;  they  have  enteredinto  merce- 
nary treaties  wkh~tliQse  human  butchers,  for  the  pun  base 
and  sale  of  human  blood.  But,  my  lords,  this  is  not  all ; 
ihey  have  entered  into  other  treaties ;  they  have  let  the 
savages  of  America  loose  upon  their  innocent,  unoff'-nding 
brethren, — loose  upon  the  weak,  the  aged,  and  defenceh-ss; 
on  old  men,  women,  and  children  ;  upon  the  very  babes  up- 
on the  breast,  to  be  cul,  mangled,  sacrificed,  broii-d, 
roasted,  nay,  to  be  literally  eut  alive.  These,  my  l(;rds, 
are  tlie  allies  Great  Britain  now  has  :  carnage,  desolation, 
and  destruction,  wherever  her  arms  are  carried,  is  her  new- 
ly adoped  mode  of  making  war.^  Ourministers  have  made 
alliances  at  the  German  shambles,  and  with  the  barbarians  of 
America  ;  with  the  merciless  torturers  of  their  species  : 
where  they  will  next  apply,  I  cannot  tell:  having  already 
scoured  all  Germany  and  America,  to  seek  the  assistance 
of  cannibals  and  butchers.  The  arms  of  this  country  are 
disgraced,  even  in  victory,  as  well  as  defeat.  Is  this  con- 
sistent, my  lords,  v/ith  any  part  of  our  former  conduct  ? 
Was  it  by  means  like  these  we  arrived  at  that  pinnacle 
of  fame  and  grandeur,  which,  while  it  established  our  re- 
putation in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  gave  the  fullest  tes- 
timony of  our  justice,  mercy  and  national  integrity  ?  Was 
it  by  the  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife  that  British  valour 
and  humanity  became  in  a  ma'nner  proverbial,  and  the 
triumphs  of  war  and.  the  eclat  of  conquest  became  but 
matters  of  secondary  praise,  when  compared  to  those  of 
national  humanity,  and  national  honour  ?  Was  it  by  set-- 
ting  loose  the  savages  of  America,  to  embrue  their  hands 
in  the  blood  of  our  enemies,  that  the  duties  of  the  soldier^ 
the  citizen,  and  the  man,  came  to  be  united  ?  Is  this  ho- 
nourable warfare,  my  lords  ?  Does  it  correspond  with  the 
language  of  of  the  poet  ? — 

"The  pvlde,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  v/ar^ 
That  makes  ambition  virtue." 


* "  and  at  his  heels, 

Leash'd  in  like  hounds,  should  Famine,  Sword-  and  Fircj. 

Crouch  for  employment." hej^idt  y, 

K2. 


102  AMERICAN 


i« 


Lord  Chatham'' s  Speech^  30th  3Iay  1777 — on  moving  "  That 
an  humble  address  be  presented  to  his7najesty^  most  hum- 
bly  to  advise  his  majesty  to  take  the  most  speedy  and  effec- 
tual measures  for  putting  a  stop  to  the  present  unnatural 
ivar  against  the  colonies^  upon  the  only  just  and  solid 
foundation,  namely  the  removal  of  accumulated  grievan- 


"  THE  present  motion  will  open  the  way  for  treaty. 
It  will  be  the  harbinger  of  peace,  and  will  convince  the 
Americans,  thiit  parliament  is  sincerely  disposed  to  recon- 
ciliation. We  have  tried  for  unconditional  submission — 
let  us  now  try  what  can  be  gained  by  unconditional  re- 
dress. The  door  of  mercy  has  been  hitherto  shut  against 
them  :  you  have  ransacked  every  corner  of  Germany  for 
boors  and  ruffians  to  invade  and  ravage  their  country  ;  for 
to  conquer  it,  ray  lords,  is  impossibly — you  cannot  do  it» 
I  may  as  well  pretend  to  drive  them  before  me  with  this 
CRUTCH.  I  am  experienced  in  spring  hopes  and  vernal 
promises,  but  at  last  will  come  your  equinoctial  disappoint- 
ment. But  were  it  practicable  by  a  long  continued  course 
of  success  to  conquer  America,  the  holding  it  in  subjection 
afterwards  will  be  utterly  impossible.  No  benefit  can  be 
derived  from  that  country  to  this,  but  by  the  good-will  and 
pure  affection  of  the  inhabitants  :  this  is  not  to  be  gained  by 
force  of  arms ;  their  affection  is  only  to  be  recovered  by  re- 
conciliation and  justice.  If  ministers  are  founded  insaying, 
that  no  engagements  are  entered  into  by  America  with 
France,  there  is  yet  a  moment  left;  the  point  of  honor  is 
still  safe  ;  a  few  weeks  may  decide  our  fate  as  a  nation^ 
\Vere  America  suffered  to  form  a  treaty  with  France,  vv'e 
should  not  only  lose  the  immense  advantages  resulting  from 
the  vast  and  increasing  commerce  of  our  colonies,  but  those 
advantages  would  be  thrown  into  the  hands  of  our  heredita- 
ry enemy.  America,  ray  lords,  is  now  contending  v/ith 
Great  Britain  under  a  masked  battery  of  France,  which 
will  open  as  she  perceives  this  country  to  be  sufficiently 
weakened  by  the  contest.  France  •  S\  not  lose  so  fair  an 
opportunity  of  separating  for  ever  America  from  this  king- 
dom. This  is  the  critical  moment — for  such  a  treaty  must 
and  will  take  place,  should  pacification  be  delayed ;  and  war 
betv/een  England  and  France  is  not  the  less  probable<.be= 


SPEAKER.  lOj 

cause  professions  of  amity  continue  to  be  made.  It  would 
be  folly  in  France  to  declare  it  now,  while  America  gives 
full  employment  to  our  arms,  and  is  pouring  into  her  lap 
her  wealth  and  produce.  While  the  trade  of  Great  Bri- 
tain languishes,  while  her  taxes  increase  and  her  revenues 
diminish,  France  is  securing  and  drawing  to  herself  that 
commerce  which  is  the  basis  of  your  power.  My  motion 
was  stated  generally,  that  I  might  leave  the  question  at 
large  to  the  wisdom  of  your  lordships.  But,  my  lords,  I 
will  tell  you  fairly  what  I  wish  for — I  wish  for  a  repeal  of 
every  oppressive  act  passed  since  1763  ;  I  would  put  Ame- 
rica precisely  on  the  footing  she  stood  at  that  period.  If 
it  be  asked,  Why  should  we  submit  to  concede  ?  I  will 
tell  you,  my  lords  :  Because  you  have  been  the  aggressors 
from  the  beginning  :  you  ought,  therefore,  to  make  the 
first  overture.  I  say  again,  my  lords,  you  have  been  the 
aggressors,  you  have  made  descents  upon  their  coasts,  you 
have  burned  their  towns,  plundered  their  country,  made 
war  upon  the  inhabitants,  confiscated  th  ir  property,  pros- 
cribed and  imprisoned  their  ptrson?  : — you  have  injured, 
oppressed,  and  endeavored  to  enslave  them. — America  is 
therefore  entitled  to  redress.  Let  then  reparation  come 
from  the  hand  that  inflicted  the  injuries  ;  let  conciliation 
succeed  to  oppression  ;  and  I  maintain,  that  parliament 
will  again  recover  its  authority  ;  that  his  m  jesty  will  be 
once  more  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  his  subj/ cts  ;  and 
that  your  lordships,  as  contributing  to  so  great,  benignant 
and  glorious  an  event,  will  receive  the  pra^-ers  and.  bene- 
dictions of  every  part  of  the  British  empire." 


Farl  of  Chatham^  on  Lord  OxforcTs  moUoJi  to  adjourn   the 
House— 1777. 

IT  is  not  wldi  less  grief  than  astonishment  I  hear  the 
motion  now  made  by  the  noble  earl,  at  a  time  when  the 
affairs  of  this  country  present  on  every  side  prospects  full 
of  awe,  terror,  and  impending  danger;  when,  I  will  be 
bold  to  say,  events  of  a  more  alarming  tendency,  iittle  ex- 
pected or  foreseen, will  shortly  happen  ;  when  a  cloud,  that 
may  crush  this  niitlon,  and  bury  it  in  destruction  for  ever, 
is  ready  to  burst  and  overwhelm  us  m.  ruin.     At  so  tre- 


104  AMERICAN 

mendous  a  season,  it  does  not  become  your  lordships,  the 
great  hereditary  council  of  the  nation,  to  neglect  your  du- 
ty, to  retire  to  your  country  seats  for  six  weeks,  in  quest  of 
joy  and  merriment,  while  the  real  state  of  public  afF^irs 
calls  for  grief,  mourning,  and  lamentation  ;  at  least,  for  the 
fullest  exertions  of  your  wisdom.  It  is  your  duty,  my 
lords,  as  the  grand  hereditary  council  of  the  nation,  to  ad- 
vis-^  your  sovereign,  to  be  protectors  of  your  country,  to  feel 
your  own  weight  and  authority.  As  hereditary  counsellors, 
as  members  of  this  house,  you  stand  between  the  crown 
and  the  people ;  you  are  nearer  the  throne  than  the  other 
branch  of  the  legislature  ;  it  is  your  duty  to  surround  and 
protect,  to  counsel  and  supplicate  it.  You  hold  the  ba- 
lance ,*  your  duty  is  to  see  that  the  weights  are  properly 
poised,  that  the  balance  remains  even,  that  neither  may 
encroichon  the  other,  and  that  the  executive  power  may  be 
prevented,  by  an  urxonstitutional  exertion  of  even  consti- 
tutional authority,  from  bringing  the  nation  to  destruction. 
My  lords,  I  lear  we  are  arrived  at  the  very  brink  of  that 
stiUe;  and  I  am  persuaded  that  nothing"  short  of  a  spirited 
interposition  on  your  part,  in  giving  speedy  and  whole- 
some advice  to  }Qiir  sovereign,  can  prevent  the  people 
from  feeling  bc)ond  remedy  the  full  effects  of  that  ruin 
which  ministers  have  brought  upon  us.  These  calamitous 
circumstances  ministers  have  been  the  cause  of:  and  shall 
we,  in  such  a  state  of  things,  when  every  moment  teems 
with  events  productive  of  the  most  fatal  narratives,  shall 
we  trust,  during  an  adjournuient  of  six  weeks,  to  those  men 
who  have  brought  those  calamities  upon  us,  when,  per- 
haps, oar  utter  overthrow  is  plotting,  nay  ripe  for  execu- 
tion, without  almost  a  possibility  of  prevention  ?  Ten  thou- 
sand brave  men  have  fallen  victims  to  ignorance  and  rash- 
ness. The  only  army  you  have  in  America  may,  by  this 
time,  be  no  more.  This  very  nation  remains  no  longer 
safe  than  its  enemies  think  proper  to  permit.  I  do  not 
augur  ill.  Events  of  a  most  critical  nature  may  take  place 
before  our  next  meeting.  Will  your  lordships,  then,  in 
such  a  st:ite  ui  things,  trust  to  the  guidance  of  men  who  in 
every  single  step  of  this  cruel,  this  wicked  war,  from  the 
very  beginning,  have  proved  themselves  weak,  ignorant, 
and  mistaken:'  I  will  no_t  say,  my  lords,  nor  do  1  mean 
any  thing  personal,  or  that  they  have  brought  premeditated 


SPEAKER.  10a 

ruin  on  this  country.  I  will  not  suppose  that  they  foresaw 
what  has  since  happened  ;  but  I  do  contend,  my  lords,  that 
their  want  of  wisdom,  their  incapacit> ,  their  temerity  in 
depending  on  their  own  judgment,  or  their  base  complian- 
ces with  the  orders  and  dictates  of  others,  perhaps  caused 
by  the  influence  of  one  or  two  individuals,  have  rendered 
them  totally  unworthy  of  your  lordships'  confidence,  of  the 
confidence  of  parliament,  ami  those  whose  rights  they  are 
the  conf^titutional  guardians  of,  the  ptople  at  large.  A  re- 
monstrance, my  lords,  should  be  carried  to  the  throne.  The 
king  has  been  deluded  by  his  ministers:  they  have  been  im- 
posed on  by  false  information,  or  have,  from  motives  best 
known  to  themselves,  given  apparent  credit  to  what  they 
have  be  en  convinced  in  their  hearts  was  untrue.  The  na- 
tion has  been  betrayed  into  the  ruinous  me  -.sure  of  an  Am- 
erican war  by  the  arts  of  imposition,  by  th-.  ir  O'v  n  crt-du- 
litv,  through  the  means  of  false  hopes,  false  pride,  and  pro- 
mised advantages,  oT  the  most  romantic  and  improbable 
nature.  My  lords,  I  do  not  wish  to  call  your  attention  en- 
tirely to  that  point.  1  would  fairly  appeal  to  your  own  sen- 
timents, whether  I  can  be  justly  charged  with  arrogance  or 
presumption,  if  I  said,  great  and  able  as  ministers  think 
themselves,  that  all  the  wisdom  of  the  nation  is  not  confi- 
ned to  the  nr^rrow  circle  of  their  petty  cabinet.  I  might,  I 
think,  without  presumption,  say,  that  your  lordships,  as  one 
of  the  branches  of  the  legislature,  may  be  supposed  as  ca- 
pable of  advising  your  sovereign,  in  the  moment  of  difficul- 
ty and  danger,  as  any  lesser  council,  composed  of  a  iewer 
number  ;  and  who,,  being  already  so  fati\lly  trusted,  have 
betrayed  a  want  of  honesty,  or  a  want  of  talents.  Is  it,  my 
lords,  within  the  utmost  stretch  of  the  most  sanguine  ex- 
pectation, that  the  same  men  who  have  plunged  you  into 
your  present  perilous  and  calamitous  situation  are  the  pro- 
per persons  to  rescue  you  from  it?  No,  my  lords,  such  an 
expectation  would  be  preposterous  and  absurd.  I  say,  .ny 
lords,  you  are  now  specially  called  upon  to  interpose.  It  is 
your  duty  to  forego  every  call  of  business  and  pleasure,  to 
give  up  your  whole  time  to  inquire  into  past  misconduct ; 
to  provide  remedies  for  the  present;  to  prevent  further 
future  evils  ;  to  rest  on  your  arms^  if  1  may  use  ,the  ex- 
pression, to  watch  for  the  public  safety  ;  to  delend  and 
support  the  throne,  and  if  fate  sliould  so  ordain  it,  to  fall 


106  AMERICAN 

with  becoming  fortitude,  with  the  rest  of  your  fellow  sub- 
jects, in  the  general  ruin.  I  fear  this  last  must  be  the 
event  of  this  mad,  unjust,  and  cruel  war.  It  is  your  lord- 
ships' duty  to  do  every  thing  in  your  power  that  it  shall 
not ;  but,  if  it  must  be  so,  I  trust  your  lordships  and  the 
nation  will  tall  j^loriously. 

My  lorda,  I  contend  that  we  have  not,  nor  can  procure 
any  f  rce  sufficient  to  subdue  Americru  It  is  monstrous 
to  think  of  it.  i'hcre  are  several  noble  lords  present,  well 
acquainted  with  military  affairs.  I  call  upon  any  one  of 
them,  to  rise  and  pledge  himself,  that  the  military  force 
now  within  the  kingdom  is  adequate  to  its  defence,  or 
that  rny  possible  force  to  be  procured  from  Germany, 
Sv\  itz<  r'ard,  or  elsewhere,  will  be  equal  to  the  conquest  of 
Amtrica.  I  am  too  perfectly  persuadtd  of  tht-ir  abilities 
and  integrity  to  expect  any  such  assurance  from  them. — 
Oh  !  but  if  Am  rica  is  not  to  be  co  .quered,  she  may  be 
treated  with. — Conciliation  is  at  length  thought  of  ;  terms 
are  to  he  (  ff  rtd.  Who  are  the  persons  that  are  to  treat 
on  the  part  (f  this  afflicted  and  deluded  country?  The 
vtr)  men  who  have  been  the  authors  of  our  misfortunes  ; 
the  very  men  who  h  ve  endeavoured  by  the  most  perni- 
cious policy,  thr  hight  st  injustice  j^nd  oppression,  the 
most  cruel  and  devastating  war,  to  enslave  those  people 
they  would  conciliate,  to  gain  the  confidence  and  affection 
of  those  who  have  survived  the  Indian  tomahawk  and 
German  bayonet.  Can  your  lordships  entertain  the  most 
distant  prospect  of  success  from  such  a  treaty  and  such 
negociations?  No,  my  lords,  the  A-nericans  have  virtue, 
and  they  must  detest  the  principles  of  such  men  ;  they  have 
understanding,  and  too  much  wisdom,  to  trust  to  the  cun- 
ning and  narrow  politics  which  must  cause  such  overtures 
on  the  part  of  their  merciless  persecutors.  My  lords,  I 
maintain  that  they  would  sliun,  with  a  mixture  of  pru- 
dence and  detestation,  any  proposition  coming  from  that 
quarter.  They  would  receive  terms  from  such  men,  as 
snares  to  allure  and  betray.  They  would  dread  them  as 
ropes  meant  to  be  put  about  their  legs,  in  order  to  entan- 
gle and  overthrow  them  in  certain  ruin.  My  lords,  sup- 
posing that  our  domestic  danger,  if  at  all,  is  far  distant  j 
that  our  enemies  will  leave  us  at  liberty  to  prosecute  this 


SPEAKER.  lor 

war  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability ;  suppose  your  lordships 
should  grant  a  fleet  one  day,  an  army  another  ;  all  these,  I 
do  affirm,  will  avail  nothing,  unless  you  accompany  it  with 
advice.  Ministers  have  been  in  error:  experience  has 
proved  it ;  and  what  is  worse,  they  continue  it ;  they  told 
you  in  the  beginning  that  15,000  men  would  traverse  all 
America,  without  scarcely  an  appearance  of  mterruption  ; 
two  campaigns  have  passed  since  they  gave  us  this  assu- 
rance. Treble  that  number  have  been  employed;  and  one 
of  your  armies,  which  composed  two-thirds  of  the  force 
by  which  America  was  to  be  subdued,  has  been  totally 
destroyed,  and  is  now  led  captive  through  those  provinces 
you  call  rebellious.  Those  men  whom  you  called  cowards, 
paltrons,  runaways,  arnd  knaves,  are  become  victorious 
over  your  veteran  troops ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  victory, 
and  flush  of  conquest,  have  set  ministers  an  example  of 
moderation  and  magnanimity  well  worthy  of  imitation. 

M\  lords,  no  time  should  be  lost  which  may  promise  to 
improve  this  disposition  in  America  ;  unless  by  an  obsti- 
nacy founded  in  madness,  we  wish  to  stifle  those  embers 
of  aff'ection  which,  after  all  our  sav.tgc  treatment,  do  not 
seem  as  yet  to  have  been  entirely  extinguished.  While 
on  one  side  we  must  lament  the  unhappy  fate  of  that  spirit- 
ed officer,  Mr.  Burgoyne,  and  the  gallant  troops  under  his 
command,  who  were  sacrificed  to  the  wanton  temerity 
and  ignorance  of  ministers,  we  are  as  strongly  compelled 
on  the  ofher  to  admire  and  applaud  the  generous,  mag- 
nanimous conduct,  the  noble  friendship,  brotherly  afl'cc- 
tion,  and  humanity  ol  the  victors,  who  condescending  to 
impute  the  horrid  orders  of  massacres  and  devastatiori  to 
their  true  authors,  supposed  that,  as  soldiers  and  Eng- 
lishmen, th(;se  cruel  excesses  could  not  have  originated 
with  the  p:eneral,  nor  were  consonant  to  the  iirave  an  .  hu- 
mane spirFt  of  a  British  soldier,  if  not  compelled  to  it  as 
an  act  of  duty.  They  traced  the  first  cause  of  th  )se  dia- 
bolic orders  to  their  true  source;  and,  by  that  vvise  and 
generous  interpretation,  granted  thi  ir  profrsst  d  destroyers 
terms  of  capitulaiioi^  which  tht  v  could  be  only  entitled  to 
as  the  makers  of  lair  and  honourHble  war. 

My  l(»rds'  I  should  not  have  presumed  to  trouble  you, 
if  the  treajendous  state  of  this  :i  'ioM  did  not,  in  my  opi- 
nion, make  it  necessary.    Such  as  1  have  this  day  describ- 


108  AMERICAN 

ed  it  to  be,  I  do  maintain  it  is.  The  same  measures  arc 
still  persisted  in  ;  and  ministers,  because  your  lordships 
have  be^n  deluded,  deceived  and  misled,  presume  that 
whenever  the  worst  comes,  they  will  be  enabled  to  shelter 
themselves  behind  parliament.  This,' my  lords,  cannot  be 
the  case  ;  they  have  committed  themselves  and  their  mea- 
sures to  the  fate  of  war,  and  they  must  abide  the  issue.  I 
tremble  for  this  country :  I  am  almost  led  to  despair  that 
we  shall  ever  be  able  to  extricate  ourselves.  At  any  rate, 
they  day  of  retribution  is  at  hand,  when  the  vengeance  of 
a  much  injured  and  afflicted  people,  will,  I  trust,  fall  heavi- 
ly on  the  authors  of  their  ruin  ;  and  I  am  strongly  inclined 
to  believe,  that  before  the  day  to  which  the  proposed  ad- 
journment shall  arrive,  the  noble  earl  who  moved  it,  will 
have  just  cause  to  repent  of  his  motion. 

Lord  Chatham^s  Speech^  moving^  an  amendment  to  the  ad- 
'    dress  to  the  King  in  ansiuer  to  his  Speech — wherein  he 
had  announced  his  determination  "  steadily  to  pursue  hos- 
tilities against  America,''— ■Nove?nber  20th,  1777. 

<'  It  has  been  usual  on  similar  occasions  of  public  diffi- 
culty ^nd  distress,  for  the  crown  to  make  application  to 
this  L-ouse,  the  great  hereditary  council  of  the  nation,  for 
advice  and  assistance.  As  it  is  the  right  of  parliament  to 
give,  so  it  is  the  duty  ot  the  crown  to  ask  it.  But,  on 
this  day,  and  in  this  extreme  momentous  exigency,  no  re- 
liance is  reposed  on  your  counsels — no  advice  is  asked  of 
parliament ;  but  the  crown  from  itself,  and  by  itself,  de- 
clares an  unalterable  determination  to  pursue  its  own  pre- 
concerted measures  ;  and  what  measures,  my  lords  ?  mea- 
sures vv'hich  have,  produced  hitherto  nothing  but  disap- 
pointments and  defeats.  I  cannot,  my  lords,  I  will  not 
join  in  congratulation  on  mvofortune  and  disgrace.  This, 
my  lords,  is  a  perilous  and  tremendous  moment :  it  is  not 
a  time  for  adulation:  the  smoothness  of  flattery  cannot 
save  us  in  this  rugged  and  awful  crisis.  It  is  now  neces- 
sary to  instruct  th  throne,  in  the  language  of  Truth.  We 
must,  if  possihl  ,  aisi>.l  the  d  lusion  and  darkness  which 
envelope  it ;  and  display,  in  its  full  danger  and  genuine 
colors  the  ruin  which  is  brought  to  our  doors.  Can  mini- 
sters still  presume  to  expect  support  in  their  infatuation ! 


SPEAKER.  109 

Can  parliament  be  so  dead  to  its  dignity  and  duty  as  to 
give  their  support  to  ipeasures  thus  obtruded  and  forced 
upon  them  ?  Measures,  my  lords,  which  have  reduced  this 
late  flourishing  empire  to  scorn  and  contempt.     But  yes- 
terday,  "  and    England   might   have   stood   against   the 
world — NOW,  none  so  poor  to  do  her  reverence."     The 
people  whom  we  at  first  despised  as  rebels^  but  whom  we 
now  acknowledge  as  enemies^  are  abetted  against  you,  sup- 
plied with  every  military  store,  their  interests  consulted, 
and  their  ambassadors  entertainrd  by  your  inveterate  tne- 
my  ;  and  our  ministers  do  not,  and  dare  not,  interpos-  with 
dignity  or  effect.  The  desperate  state  of  our  army  abroad 
is  in  part  known.     No  man  more  highly  esteems  and  ho- 
nours the  English  troops  than  I  do :   I  know  their  virtue 
and  thtir  valor :   I  know  they  c;ni  achieve  any  thing  ex- 
cept impossibilities  ;  and  I  know  that  the  ( onquest  of  Eng- 
lish America  is  an  impossibility.    You  cannot,  my  lords, 
you  CANNOT  conquer  America.      What  is  your  present 
situation  there  ?  We  do  not  know  the  worsts  but  we  know 
that  in  three  campaigns  we  have  done  nothing,  and  suffer- 
ed much.  You  may  swell  ever>  expense,  and  strain  every 
effort,  accumulate  every  assistance,  and  extend  yoiw*  traffic 
to  the  shambles  of  every  Genncm  despot ;  your  attempts 
for  ever  will  be  vain  and  impotent ;  douMy  so  indeed  from 
this  mercenary  aid  on  which  you  rely  ;  for  it  irritates  to 
an  incurable  resentment  the  minds  of  your  adversaries  to 
overrun  them  with  the  mercenary  sons  of  rapine  and  plun- 
der, devoting  them  and  their  possessions  to  thf  rupacitvof 
hireling  cruelty.   If  I  were  an  American,  as  1  am  an  Eng- 
lishman, while  a  foreign  troop  was  landed  in  my  country, 
I  never  would  lay  down  my  arms — never  !  never  !  ne- 
ver!  But,  my  lords,  who  is  the  man,  that  in  addition  to 
the  disgraces  and  mischiefs  of  Wi  r,  has  dared  to  autho- 
rize, and  associate  to  our  c-rm .  the  tomahawk  and  scalping 
knife  of  the  savage — to  call  into  civilized  alliance  the  wild 
and  inhuman  inhabitant  of  the  woods  f — to  delegate  to 
the  merciless  Indian  the  defence  of  disputed  rights,  and  to 
wage  the  horrors  of  his  barbarous  war  against  our  bre- 
thren ?   My  lords,  these  enormities  cry  aloud  for  redress 
and  punishment.     Familiarized  to  the  horrid  scenes  of 
savage  cruelty,  our  army  can  no  longer  boast  of  the  noble 
and  generous  principles  which  dignify  a  soldier.    No  Ion- 


no  AMERICAN 

ger  are  their  feelings  awake  to  "the  pride,  pomp,  and  cir- 
cumstance ©f  GLORIOUS  war;" — ^but  the  sense  of  honour 
IS  degraded  into  a  vile  spirit  of  plunder,  and  the  systema- 
tic practice  ot  murder.     P'rom  the  ancient  connection  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  her  colonies,  both  parties  derived 
the  most  important  advantage.     While  the  shield  of  our 
protection  was  extended  over  America,  she  was  the  foun- 
tain of  our  wealth,  the  nerve  of  our  strength,  the  basis  of 
our  power.     It  is  not,  my  lords,  a  wild  and  lawless  ban- 
ditti whom  we  oppose  ;  the  resistance  of  America  is  the 
struggle  of  free  and  virtuous  patriots.     Let  us  then  seize 
with    eagerness    the    present   moment    of   reconciliation. 
America  has  not  yet  finally  given  herself  up  to  France  ; 
there  yet  remains  a  possibility  of  escape  from  the  fatal 
eftect  of  our  delusions.    In  this  complicated  crisis  of  dan- 
ger, weakness,  and  calamity,  terrified  and  insulted  by  the 
neighbouring  powers,  unable  to  act  in  America,  or  acting 
only  to  be  destroyed,  where  is  the  man  who  will  venture 
to  flatter  us  with  the  hope  of  success  from  the  perseve- 
rance in  measures  productive  of  these  dire  effects  ?  Who 
has  the  effrontery  to  attempt  it  ?  Where  is  that  man  ?  Let 
him  if  he  dare,  stand  forward  and  shew  his  face.     You 
cannot  conciliate  America  by  your  present  measures :  you 
cannot  subdue  her  by  your  present  or  any  measures.  What 
then  can  you  do  ?  You  cannot  conquer,  you  cannot  gain  ; 
but  you  can  address  :  you  can  lull  the  fears  and  anxieties 
of  the  moment  into  ignorance  of  the- danger  that  should 
produce  them.    I  did  hope,  instead  of  that  false  and  emp- 
ty pride,  engendering   high   conceits  and  presumptuous 
imaginations,  that  ministers  would  have  hvmibled  them- 
selves in  their  errors — would  have  confessed  and  retracted 
them,  and  by  an  active,  though  a  late  repentance,  have  en- 
deavoured to  redeem  them.      But,  my  lords,  since  they 
have  ntither  sagacity  to  foresee,  nor  justice  nor  humanity 
to  shun  those  calamities — since  not  even  bitter  exp  rience 
can  make  them  feel,  nor  the  imminmt  ruin  of  their  coun- 
try awaken  them   from  their  stupefaction,  the   guardian 
care  ot  parliament,  must  interpose.     I  shall  then  lore,  ray 
lords,  propose  to  you  an  amendment  to  the  address  to  his 
Majesty — To  recommend  an  immediate  cessation  ot  hos- 
tilities, and  the  commencement  of  a  treaty  to  restore  peace 
and  liberty  to  America,  stn  nuth  and  happiness  to  England, 
sccuritv'and  uciD:Loncm  prosperv^s  to  both  couutrits.   This, 


SPEAKER.  Ill 

my  lords,  is  yet  in  your  power ;  and  let  not  the  wisdom 
and  justice  of  your  lordships  neglect  the  happy  and  per- 
haps the  only  opportunity." 

Lord  Suffolk  having  in  the  debate  justijied  the  employment 
of  Indians  against  America.,  as  one  of  the  means.,  which 
God  and  Nature  had  given — Lord  Chatham  again  rose, 
and  delivered  the  folloxving  eloquent  reply. 

,'•'•  I  am  astonished,  shocked  to  hear  such  principles 
confessed  :  to  hear  them  avf)wed  in  this  House  or  even  in 
this  country.  My  lords,  I  did  nut  intend  to  have  en- 
croached again  on  your  attention,  but  I  cannot  repress  my 
indignation.  I  feel  myself  impelled  to  speak.  My 
lords,  we  are  called  upon  as  members  of  this  House,  as 
men,  as  Christians,  to  protest  against  such  horrible  bar- 
barity— That  God  and  Nature  put  into  our  hands  !  What, 
ideas  of  (jod  and  Nature  that  noble  lord  may  entertain,  I 
know  not;  but  I  know  that  such  detestable  princip! -s  are 
equally  abhorrent  to  religion  and  humamitv  !  What  to 
attribute  the  sacred  sanction  of  God  and  Nature  to  the 
massacres  f  the  Indian  scalping  kuife  ! — to  the  cannibals 
savage  torturing,  murdering,  devouring,  drinking  the 
blood  of  his  mangled  victims  !  Such  notions  shock  every 
precept  of  morality,  every  feeling  of  humanity,  every  sen- 
timent of  honor.  These  abominable  principles,  and  this 
more  abominable  avowal  of  them,  demand  the  most  deci- 
sive indignation.  I  call  upon  that  reverend,  and  this  most 
learned  bench  to  vindicate  the  religion  of  their  God,  to 
support  the  justice  of  their  country.  I  call  upon  the  bishops 
to  interpose  the  unsullied  sanctity  of  their  lawn  :  upon  the 
judges  to  interpose  the  purity  of  their  ermine,  to  save  us 
from  this  pollution.  I  call  upon  the  honour  of  your  lord- 
ships to  reverence  the  dignity  of  your  ancestors,  and  to 
maintain  your  own.  I  call  upon  the  spirit  and  humanity 
of  my  country,  to  vindicate  the  national  character,  I  invoke 
the  genius  of  the  constitution.  From  the  tapestry  that 
adorns  these  walls,  the  immortal  ancestor  of  this  noble 
lord  frowns  with  indignation  at  the  disgrace  of  his  coun- 
try.*    In  vain  did  he  defend  the  liberty  and  establish  the 

*  The  tapestry  of  the  house  of  Lords  represents  the  defeat  of  the 
Spanish  Armada  i\\  the  reis^n  of  Queen  Elizabetli,  by  Admiral  How- 
ard,  an  ancestor  of  Lord  Suiiblk— the  Admiral  is  a  coiispicuous  %'ire 
in  the  tapesti-y. 


112  AMERICAN 

religion  of  Britain,  against  the  tyranny  of  Rome,  if  these 
worse  than  pojMsh  cru  hies  and  inquisitorial  practices  are 
endured  among  us.  To  send  forth  the  merciless  cannibal, 
thirsting  for  blood!  against  whom!  Your  protestant  bre- 
thren ! — t  '  lay  waste  their  country,  to  desolate  their  dwel- 
lings, and  extirpate  their  race  and  name,  bv  the  aid  and 
i'istrumentality  of  these  horr*ible  hell-hounds  of  war! 
Spain  can  no  longer  boast  pre-eminence  in  barbarity.  She 
armed  herself  with  blood  hounds  to  extirpate  the  wretched 
natives  of  Mexico ;  but  we,  mi>re  ruthless,  loose  the  dogs 
of  war  against  our  countrymen  in  America,  endeared  to 
us  by  every  tie  that  should  sanctify  humanity.  Mv  lords, 
I  solemnly  call  upon  your  lordsViips,  and  upon  every  order 
of  men  in  the  slate,  to  stamp  upon  this  infamous  proce- 
dure thfr  iiidthble  siigma  of  the  public  abhorrence.  Mort 
particularly  I  cdl  upon  th-^  holy  pr.'lates  of  our  religion 
to  do  away  this  iniq^Jity  :  let  them  perform  a  lustration  to 
purify  their  country  from  this  deep  and  deadly  sin.  My 
lords,  I  am  old  and  weak,  and  U  present  unable  to  say 
more,  but  my  feeiings  and  indignation  were  too  strong  to 
say  less.  I  could  not  have  slept  this  night  in  my  bed,  nor 
reposed  my  head  upon  my  pillow,  without  giving  this  vent 
to. my  eternal  abhorrence  of  such  enormous  and  preposte- 
rous principles." 


Speech  of  JDr.  Shipley^  bishop  of  St,  Asaph^  hi  support  of 
the  bill  for  enlarging  the  toleration  act^  in  the  session  of 
1779. 

The  repeal  of  those  penal  laws  which  have  long  been 
the  disgrace  of  the  national  church,  has  my  most  cordial 
acquiescence  ;  I  object  only  to  the  condition  annexed  to 
the  repeal,  the  imposition  of  a  confession  of  faith,  how- 
ever short,  and  general,  and  true,  such  as  I  hope  I  shall 
have  the  virtue,  if  called  upon,  to  seal  with  my  blood. 
But  I  absolutely  disclaim  for  myself  any  authority  civil 
or  sacred  to  impose  this  creed  upon  other  men.  By  such 
imposition  the  present  bill,  which  professes  to  repeal  all 
former  penal  laws,  is  converted  into  a  penal  law  itself:  for 
those,  who  do  not  subscribe  the  declaration,  still  remain 
liable  to  all  the  old  penalties.  The  truth  contained  in  the 
declaration,  viz. — ''  That  the  scriptures  are  the  reveak4 


SPEAKER.  113 

will  of  God,  and  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice,"  was  in- 
deed acknowledged  by  every  Protestarit.  But  supposing 
the  existence  of  any  set  of  Christians  who  should  reject 
our  canon  of  scripture,  who  should  build  their  faith  on  the 
basis  of  tradition,  or  on  the  supposed  illuminations  of  the 
spirit,  would  you,  my  lords,  persecute  them  for  believing 
Christianity  upon  arguments  that  suit  th»  ir  own  under- 
standings ?  Such  men  would  undoubtedly  be  in  error,  but 
error  in  religion  is  the  very  ground  and  subject  of  tole- 
ration. The  evils  resulting  from  this  declaration  are  not 
however  confined  to  possibilities.  Many  of  the  most  mi- 
nent  of  the  dissenting  ministers — men  highly  dtser\  ing 
esteem  for- their  science,  their  literature,  their  critical 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  for  their  excellent  writings  in  de- 
fence of  Christianity,  as  w.  11  as  of  the  civil,  and  religious 
rights  of  ma;ikind — men,  whom  it  would  be  no  disp.^rage- 
ment  to  this  Bench  to  acknowledge  as  friends  and  bre- 
thren, engaged  in  the  same  hono.rrable  and  arduous  task 
of  instructing  the  world  in  the  ways  of  happiness — such 
men  as  these,  m\  lords,  if  the  clause  in  question  be  enact- 
ed and  carried  into  execution,  will  not  even  be  tolerated. 
Declaring,  as  they  have  invariably  done,  against  all  hiv- 
man  authority  in  matters  of  religion,  and  holding  it  as  : 
first  principle  of  protestantism  that  no  church  has  a  righ'; 
to  imposi"  its  own  articles  of  faith  upon  others,  the)^  con- 
ceive that  an  acxjuiescence  in  this  declaration  v/culd  imply 
a  recognition  of  that  claim  which  they  are  bound,  as  Chris  - 
tians,  and  protestants  to  resist.  It  is  the  duty  of  magis- 
trates, it  is  indeed  the  very  end  of  magistracy  to  protec-: 
all  men  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  natural  rights,  of  vvh'ch 
the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  is  one  of  the  first  and 
best.  All  history,  my  lords,  is  full  of  the  mischiefs  occa- 
sioned by  the  v/ant  of  toleration  ;  but  no  one  has  ever  yet 
pretended  to  shew,  that  any  public  evils  have  been  occa- 
sioned  by  toleration.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Right  Reverend 
Bench,  where  I  h;:d  the  honor  to  be  present,  it  was  a.sked,, 
whether  the  clause  in  question  was  ever  intended  to  be 
put  in  execution  ?  It  was  answered,  No — there  v/as  no 
such  intention.  I  asked  then,  aiid  I  ask  now.  What  was 
the  use  of  making  laws  that  were  never  to  be  executed  ? 
To  make  useless  aiid  insignificant  laws  is  not  to  exercise 
authority,  but  to  degrade  it :  it  is  a  vain,  idle,  and  inso- 

JL  2 


114  AMERICAN 

lent  parade  of  legislation ;  and  yet,  my  lords,  would  to 
God  !  the  four  last  shameful  and  miserable  years  had  been 
emplo)  ed  in  making  such  laws  as  this  :  this  wretched 
country  might  still  have  been  safe,  and  perhaps  once  more 
might  have  been  happy.  But,  my  lords,  let  us  for  a  mo- 
ment consider  to  whom  this  power  of  prescribing  articles 
of  faith  IS  to  be  confided :  undoubtedly  this  holy  deposit 
cannot  fail  to  be  lodged,  where  we  have  placed  every  thing 
else  that  is  great,  and  good  :  the  honor,  the  interest,  the 
strength,  and  revenues  of  the  nation,  all  are  placed  in 
tht  keeping  of  the  ministry.  Perhaps,  my  lords,  there 
might  be  mmisters  to  whose  management  none,  who  have 
thf  ('  ast  value  for  their  religion,  would  choose  to  confide 
it.  One  might  naturally  ask  a  minister  for  a  good  pen- 
sion, or  a  good  contract,  or  a  place  at  court  ;  but  hardly 
any  one  would  think* of  making  interest  with  him  for  a 
place  in  heaven.  What  I  nov/  say  applies  only  to  future 
bad  ministers,  for  of  the  present  administration  I  most 
iirmly  believe  that  they  are  fully  as  capable  of  defining 
articles  of  faith  as  of  directing  the  councils  of  the  state. 
The  ruling  party  is  always  very  liberal  in  bestowing  the 
tide  of  schismatic  and  heretic  on  those  who  differ  from 
them  in  religion,  and  in  representing  them  as  dangerous 
to  the  state.  My  lords,  the  contrary  is  the  truth.  Those 
who  are  uppermost  and  have  the  power,  are  the  men  who 
do  the  mischief,  while  the  schismatics  .only  suffer  and 
complain.  Ask  who  has  brought  the  affairs  of  this  coun- 
try into  the  present  calamitous  state  ?  Who  are  the  men 
that  have  plundered  and  depopulated  Bengal  ?  Who  are 
they  that  have-  turned  a  whole  continent,  inhabited  by 
friends  and  kindred,  into  our  bitterest  enemies?  Yes,  they 
who  have  shorn  the  strength,  and  cut  off  the  right  arm  of 
Bita'n,  v/cre  all  members  of  the  established  churcit^ 
all  orthodox  men.  I  am  not  afraid  of  those  tender  and 
scrupulous  consciences  who  are  over  cautious  of  profess- 
ing or  believing  too  much  :  if  they  are  sincerely  in  the 
wrong,  I  forgive  their  errors,  and  respect  ihcir  integrity; 
The  men  I  am  afraid  of  are  the  men  who  believe  every 
thing,  who  subscribe  every  thing,  and  who  vote  for  every 
thing," 


SPEAKER.  115 


Speech  of  Sir  U'lliiam  dieredith,  on  frequent  executions, 

1777. 

Whether  hanging  ever  did,  or  can,  answer  any  good 
purpose,  I  doubt :  but  the  cruel  exhibition  of  every  exe- 
cution day,  is  a  proof  that  hanging  carries  no  terror  with 
it.  And  I  am  confident,  that  every  new  sanguinary  law 
operates  as  an  encouragement  to  commit  capital  offences  ; 
for  it  is  not  the  mode,  but  the  certainty  of  punishment, 
that  creates  terror.  What  men  know  they  must  endure, 
they  fear  ;  what  they  think  thty  can  escape,  they  despise. 
The  multiplicity  of  our  hanging  laws  has  produced  these 
two  things  ;  frequency  of  condemnation,  and  frequent  par- 
dons. As  hope  is  the  first  and  greatest  spring  of  action, 
if  it  was  so,  that  out  of  twenty  convicts  one  only  was  to  be 
pardoned,  the  thitf  would  say,  "  Why  may  I  not  be  that 
one  ?"  But  since,  as  our  laws  are  actually  administered, 
not  one  in  twenty  is  executed,  the  thief  acts  on  the  chance 
of  twenty  to  one  in  his  favour ;  he  acts  on  a  fair  and  rea- 
sonable presumption  of  indemnity  ;  and  I  verily  believe, 
that  the  confident  hope  of  indemnity  is  the  cause  of  nine- 
teen in  tv/enty  robberies  that  are  committed. 

But  if  we  look  ;o  the  executions  themselves,  what  ex- 
ample do  they  give  ?  The  thief  dies  either  hard^  ned  or 
penitent.  We  are  not  to  consider  such  rt:fl>.^ctions  as  oc- 
cur to  reasonable  and  good  men,  i)ut  such  impressions  as 
are  made  on  the  thoughtless,  the  desperat.;'  and  thje  wick- 
ed. These  men  look  on  the  hardened  villain  with  envy 
rnd  admiration.  All  that  animation  and  contempt  of 
death  with  whicii  heroes  and  mart\rs  inspire  good  men 
in  a  good  cause,  the  abandoned  villain  feels  in  seeing  a 
devperado  like  himself  meet  death  with  intrepidity.  The 
penitent  thief,  on  the  other  liand,  often  niirkes  the  sober 
villain  think  in  this  way  :  himself  oppress'  d  with  poverty 
and  want,  he  sees  a  man  die  with  that  penitence  which 
promises  pardon  for  his  sins  here,  and  happiness  hereafter ; 
straight  he  thinks  that  by  robbery,  forgery,  or  murder,  he 
can  relit  ve  all  his  wants  ;  and  if  he  be  brought  to  justice, 
the  punishment  will  be  short  and  triflmg,  and  the  reward 
^.'ternaL 


116  AMERICAN 

Even  in  crimes  which  are  seldom  or  never  pardoned, 
death  is  no  prevention.  House-breakers,  forgers,  and 
coiners,  are  sure  to  be  hanged  :  yet  house-breaking,  for- 
gery, and  coining,  are  the  very  crimes  which  are  the  of- 
tenest  committed.  Strange  it  is,  that  in  the  case  of  blood, 
of  which  we  ought  to  be  most  tender,  we  should  still  go 
on,  against  reason  and  against  experience,  to  make  una- 
vailing slaughter  of  our  fellow  creatures.  A  recent  event 
has  proved  that  policy  will  do  what  blood  cannot  do.  I 
mean  the  late  regulation  of  the  coinage.  Thirty  years 
together  men  were  continually  hanged  for  coining ;  still  it 
went  on  :  but  on  the  new  regulation  of  the  gold  coin, 
ceased.  This  event  proves  these  tv/o  things :  the  efficacy 
of  police,  and  the  inefficacy  of  hanging.  But,  is  it  not 
very  extraordinary,  that  since  the  regulation  of  the  gold 
coin,  an  act  has  p^sst  d,  making  it  treason  to  coin  silver  ? 
But  has  it  stopped  the  coining  ot"  silver  ?  O  .  the  contrary, 
do  you  not  hear  of  it  more  than  ever  ?  It  seems  as  if  the 
law  and  the  crime  bore  the  same  date.  I  do  not  know 
what  the  honorable  member  thinks  who  brought  in  the 
bill ;  but  perhaps  some  feelings  may  come  across  his  own 
mind,  when  he  sees  how  many  lives  he  is  taking  away  for 
no  purpose.  Had  it  been  f  irly  stated,  and  specifically 
pointed  out,  v>'hat  the  mischief  of  coining  silver  in  the  ut- 
most extent,  is,  that  hanging  bill  miglat  not  have  been  so 
readily  adopted  :  under  the  name  of  treason  it  found  an 
easy  passage.  I  indeed  have  always  understood  treason 
to  be  nothing  less  than  some  act  of  conspiracy  against  the 
life  or  honor  of  the  king,  and  the  safety  of  the  state  :  but 
what  the  king  or  state  can  suffer  by  my  taking  now  and 
then  a  bad  sixpence  or  a  bad  shiiling,  I  cannot  imagine. 

By  this  nil  kname  of  treason,  however,  there  lies  at  this 
moment  in  Newgate,  under  sentence  to  be  burnt  alive,  a 
girl  just  turned  of  fourteen  ;  at  her  master's  bidding,  she 
hid  some  v^hite-wabhed  farthirigs  behind  her  stays,  on 
which  the  jury  found  her  guiii),  as  an  accomplice  with 
her  master  in  the  treason.  The  master  was  hanged  last 
Wednesday  ;  and  the  faggots  all  lay  ready — no  reprieve 
came  till  just  as  the  cart  was  setting  out,  and  the  girl 
would  have  been  burnt  alive  on  the  same  day,  had  it  not 
been  lor  the  humane  but  casual  interference  of  lord  Wey- 
mouth.    Good  God !  sir,  are  we  taught  to  execrate  the 


SPEAKER.  117 

iires  of  Smithfield,  and  are  we  lighting  them  now  to  burn 
a  poor  harmless  child  for  hiding  a  white-washed  farthing? 
And  yet,  this  barbarous  sentence,  which  ought  to  make 
men  shudder  at  the  thought  of  shedding  blood  for  such 
trivial  causes,  is  brought  as  a  reason  for  more  hanging 
and  burning.  It  was  recommended  to  me  not  many  days 
ago,  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  make  it  treason  to  coin  copper, 
as  well  as  gold  and  silver.  Yet,  in  the  formation  of  these 
sanguinary  laws,  humanity,  religion,  and  policy  are  thrown 
out  of  the  question.  This  one  wise  argument  is  always 
sufficient ;  if  you  hang  for  one  fiul.,  why  not  for  another? 
If  for  stealing  a  sheep,  why  not  a  cow  or  a  horse  ?  if  for 
a  shilling,  why  not  for  a  handkerchief  that  is  worth  eigh- 
teen-pence  ?— and  so  on.  We  therefore  ought  to  oppose 
the  increase  of  those  new  laws :  the  more,  because  every 
fresh  one  begets  twenty  others. 

When  a  member  of  parliament  brings  in  a  new  hanging 
law,  he  begins  with  mentioning  some  injury  that  may  be 
done  to  private  property,  for  which  a  man  is  not  yet  liable 
to  be  hanged  ;  and  then  proposes  the  gallows  as  the  speci- 
fic and  infallible  means  of  cure  and  prevention.  But  the 
bill,  in  progress  of  time,  makes  crimes  capital,  thit  scarce 
deserve  whipping.  For  instance,  the  shop-lifting  act  was 
to  prevent  bankers'  and  silver-smiths',  and  other  shops, 
where  there  are  commonly  goods  of  great  value,  from  be- 
ing robbed  ;  but  it  goes  so  far  as  to  make  it  death  to  lift 
any  thing  off  a  counter  with  intent  to  steal. 

Under  this  act,  one  Mary  Jones  was  executed,  whose 
case  I  shall  just  mention  :  it  was  at  the  time  when  press 
warrants  were  issued  on  the  alarm  about  Falkland  Islands. 
The  woman's  husband  was  ]iressed,  their  goods  seized  tor 
some  debts  of  his,  and  she  with  two  small  children,  turn- 
ed into  the  streets  a-begging.  'Tis  a  circumstance  not  to 
be  forgotten,  that  she  was  very  young,  (under  nineteen) 
and  most  remarkably  handsoine.  Sh'-  went  to  a  linen- 
draper's  shop,  took  some  coarse  linen  off  the  counter,  and 
slipped  it  under  her  cloak  ;  the  shopman  saw  her,  and  she 
laid  it  down  :  for  diis  she  was  hanged.  Her  defence  was 
(I  have  the  trial  in  my  pocket)  '•'  th  \t  she  had  lived  in 
credit  and  v/anted  for  nothing,  till  a  press-gang  came  and 
stole  her  husband  from  her ;  but,  since  then  she  had  no 
bed  to  lie  on  ;  nothing  to  give  her  children  to  eat  j  and 


118  AMERICAN 

they  were  almost  naked  :  and  perhaps  she  might  have 
done  something  wrong,  for  she  hardly  knew  what  she 
did."  The  parish  officers  testified  the  truth  of  this  story  ; 
but  it  seems  there  had  been  a  good  deal  of  shop-lifting 
about  Ludgate  ;  an  example  was  thought  necessary  ;  and 
thic  woman  was  hanged  for  the  comfort  and  satisfaction 
of  some  shop-keepers  in  Ludgate-street.  When  brought 
to  receive  sentence,  she  behaved  in  such  a  fri-.ntic  manner, 
as  proved  her  mind  to  be  in  a  distracted  and  desponding 
state ;  and  the  child  was  sucking  at  her  breast  when  she 
set  out  for  Tyburn. 

Let  us  reflt^ct  a  little  on  this  woman's  fate.  The  poet 
says,  '*  an  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God."  He 
might  have  said  with  equal  truth,  that  a  beauteous  wo- 
man's the  noblest  work  of  God. 

But  for  whi^t  cause  was  God's  creation  robbed  of  this 
its  n  blest  work  ?  Ir  was  for  no  injury  ;  but  for  a  mere 
attempt  to  clotht  two  naked  children  by  unlawful  means. 
Compare  this  with  what  the  state  did,  and  with  what  the 
law  did.  The  state  bereaved  the  woman  of  her  husband, 
and  the  children  of  a  father,  who  was  all  their  support, 
the  L.w  deprived  the  woman  ot  her  life,  and  the  children 
of  their  remaining  parent,  e,xposing  them  to  every  dan- 
ger, insult,  and  merciless  treatment,  that  destitute  and 
helpless  orphans  suffer.  Take  all  the  circumstances  to- 
gether, I  do  not  believe  that  a  fouler  murder  was  ever 
committed  against  law,  than  the  murder  of  this  woman 
by  law.  Some  who  hear  me,  arc  perhaps  blaming  the 
judges,  the  jury,  and  the  hangman;  but  neither  judge, 
jury,  nor  hangman  are  to  blame,  they  are  but  ministerial 
agents;  the  trur  hangman  is  the  member  of  parliament: 
he  who  frames  the  bloody  law  is  answerable  for  all  the 
blood  that  is  shed  under  it.  But  there  is  a  farther  con- 
sideration still.  Dying  as  these  unhappy  wretches  often 
do,  who  knows  what  their  future  lot  may  be  !  Perhaps, 
my  honorable  friend  who  moves  this  bill,  has  not  yet 
considered  himself  in  the  light  of  an  executioner;  no  man 
has  more  humanity,  no  man  a  stronger  sense  of  religion 
than  himself;  and  I  verily  believe,  that  at  this  moment  he 
wishes  as  little  success  to  his  hanging  law,  as  I  do.  His 
nature  must  recoil  at  making  himself  the  cause  not  only 


SPEAKER.  119 

of  shedding  the  blood,  but  perhaps  destroying  the  soul  of 
his  ftllow  creatures. 

But  the  wretches  who  die  are  not  the  only  sufferers  ; 
there  are  more  and  greater  objects  of  compassion  still ; — 
I  mean  the  surviving  relations  and  friends.  Who  knows 
how  many  innocent  children  we  may  be  deeming  to  igno- 
miny and  wretchedness  ?  Who  knows  how  many  widows' 
hearts  we  may  break  with  grief,  how  many  grey  hairs  of 
parents  we  may  bring  with  sorrow  to  the  grave  ? 

The  Mosaic  law  ordained,  that  for  a  sheep  or  an  ox, 
four  and  five  fold  should  be  restored  :  and  for  robbing  a 
house,  double  ;  that  is,  one  fold  for  reparation,  the  rest 
for  example  ;  and  the  forfeiture  was  greater,  as  the  pro- 
perty was  more  exposed.  If  the  thief  came  by  night,  it 
was  lawful  to  kill  him  :  but  if  he  came  by  day  he  was 
only  to  make  restitution  ;  and  if  he  had  nothing,  he  was 
to  be  sold  for  his  theft.  This  is  all  that  God  required  in 
felonies,  nor  can  I  find  in  history  any  sample  of  such  laws 
as  ours,  except  a  code  that  was  framed  at  Athens  by- 
Draco.  He  made  every  offence  capital,  upon  this  modern 
way  of  reasoning  ;  "  That  petty  crimes  deserved  death, 
and  he  knew  nothing  worse  for  the  greatest."  His  laws, 
it  was  said,  were  written,  not  with  ink,  but  with  blood  ; 
but  they  were  of  short  duration,  being  all  repealed  by 
Solon,  except  one,  for  murder. 

An  attempt  was  made  some  years  ago  by  my  honor- 
able friend,  sir  Charles  Bunbury,  to  repeal  some  of  the 
most  absurd  and  cruel  of  our  capital  laws.  The  bill  passed 
this  house,  but  was  rejected  by  the  lords,  for  this  reason  : 
"  It  was  an  innovation,  (they  said)  and  subversion  of 
law."  The  very  reverse  is  truth.  These  hanging  laws 
are  themselves  innovations.  No  less  than  three  and  thirty 
of  them  passed  during  the  last  reign.  I  believe,  I  myself 
was  the  first  person  who  checked  the  progress  of  them. 
When  the  great  AKred  came  to  the  throne,  he  four.d  the 
kingdom  overrun  with  robbers  ;  but  the  silly  expedient  of 
hanging  never  came  into  his  head  :  he  mstituttd  a  police, 
which  w  IS,  to  m.ike  every  tovnship  answerable  for  the 
felonies  committed  in  it.  Thus  property  became  the  guar- 
dian of  property  ;  and  all  robbr  rv  was  so  effectually  stop- 
ped, that  (the  historians  tell  us)  ia  a  very  short  time  a 


120  AMERICAN 

man  might  travel  through  the  kingdom,  unarmed,  with  his 
purse  in  his  hand. 

Treason,  murder,  rape,  and  burning  a  dwelling  house, 
were  all  the  crimes  that  were  liable  to  be  punished  with 
death  by  our  good  old  common  law.  And  such  was  the 
tenderness,  such  the  reluctance  to  shed  blood,  that  if  re- 
compense could  possibly  be  made,  life  was  not  to  be  touch- 
ed. Treason  being  against  the  king,  the  remission  of  that 
crime  was  in  the  crown.  In  case  of  murder  itself,  if  com- 
pensation could  be  made,  the  next  of  kin  might  discharge 
the  prosecution,  which,  if  once  discharged,  could  never 
be  revived.  If  a  ravisher  could  make  the  injured  woman 
satisfaction,  the  law  had  no  power  over  him  ;  she  might 
marry  the  man  under  the  gallows,  if  she  pleased,  and  take 
him  from  the  jaws  of  death  to  the  lips  of  matrimony. 
But  so  fatally  are  we  deviated  from  the  benignity  of  our 
ancient  laws,  that  there  is  now  under  sentence  of  death  an 
unfortunate  clergyman,  who  made  satisfaction  for  the  in- 
jury attempted  :  the  satisfaction  was  accepted  ;  and  yet 
the  acceptance  of  the  satisfaction,  and  the  prosecution 
bear  the  same  date. 

There  does  not  occur  to  my  thoughts  a  proposition  more 
abhorrent  from  nature,  and  from  reason,  than  that  in  a 
matter  of  property,  when  restitution  is  made,  blood  should 
still  be  required. 

Having  said  so  much  on  the  general  principles  of  our 
criminal  laws,  I  have  only  a  short  word  or  two  to  add,  on 
the  two  propositions  now  before  us  ;  one,  to  hang  persons 
that  wilfully  set  fire  to  ships  ;  the  other,  to  compel  such 
offenders  to  work  seven  years  on  the  Thames. 

The  question  arises  from  the  alarming  events  of  the 
late  fires  at  Portsmouth  and  Bristol ;  for  which  the  incen- 
diary is  put  to  death.  But,  will  an  act  of  parliament  pre- 
vent such  men  as  John  the  Painter  from  coming  into  the 
world,  or  control  them  when  they  are  in  it.^  You  might  as 
well  brint;  in  a  bill  to  prevent  the  appearance,  or  regulate 
the  motions,  of  a  comet.  John  the  Painter  was  so  far 
from  fearing  death,  that  he  courted  it;  was  so  far  from 
concealing  his  act,  that  he  told  full  as  much  as  was  true, 
to  his  own  conviction.  When  once  a  villain  turns  enthu- 
siast, he  is  above  all  law.  Punishment  is  his  reward,  and 
death  his   glory.     But,  though  the  law  will  be  useless 


SPEAKER.  121 

against  villains,  it  is  dangerous,  and  may  be  fatal  to  many 
an  innocent  person.  There  is  not  an  honest  industrious 
carpenter  or  sailor,  who  may  not  be  endangered  in  the 
course  of  his  daily  labour ;  ihey  are  constantly  using  fire 
and  combustible  matter  about  shipping,  tarring  and  pitch- 
ing, and  caulking  :  accidents  are  continually  happening ; 
and  who  knows  how  many  of  these  accidents  may  be  at- 
tributed to  design  ?  Indeed,  the  act  says,  the  firing  must 
be  done  xviifiilly  and  maliciously  ;  but  judges  and  juries  do 
not  always  distinguish  right  between  the  fact  and  the  in- 
tention. It  is  the  province  of  a  jury  only  to  try  the  fact 
by  the  intention  ;  but  they  are  too  apt  to  judge  of  the  in- 
tention by  the  fact.  Justices  of  peace,  however,  are  not 
famed  for  accurate  and  nice  distinctions ;  and  all  the  hor- 
rors of  an  ignomin  ous  death  would  be  too  much  to  threaten 
every  honest  shipwright  with,  for  what  may  happen  in  the 
necessary  work  ot  his  calling. 

But,  as  I  think  punishment  necessarv  for  so  heinous  an 
offence,  and,  as  the  end  of  alJ  punishment  is  example  ;  of 
the  two  modes  of  punishment,  I  shall  prefer  that  which  is 
most  profitable  in  point  of  example.  Allowing  then  the 
punishment  of  death  its  utmost  force,  it  is  only  short  and 
momentary  ;  that  of  labour,  permanent ;  and  so  much  tx- 
ample  is  gained  in  him  who  is  reserved  for  labour,  more 
than  in  him  who  is  put  to  death,  as  there  are  hours  in  the 
life  of  the  one,  beyond  the  short  moment  of  the  other's 
death. 


Extract  from  a  Speech' of  Mr,  Burke^on  Economical  Reform, 

"  At  the  beginning  of  his  Majesty's  reign,  Lord  Tal- 
bot came  to  the  administration  of  a  great  department  in 
the  household.  I  believe  no  man  ever  entered  into  his 
Majesty's  service,  or  into  the  service  of  any  prince,  with 
a  more  clear  integrity,  or  with  more  zral  and  affection  for 
the  interest  of  his  master  ;  and,  I  must  add,  with  abilities 
for  a  still  higher  service.  Economy  was  then  announced 
as  a  maxim  of  the  reign. 

This  noble  Lcrd,  therefore,  made  several  attempts  to- 
wards a  reform.  In  the  year  177^,  when  the  King's  civil 
list  debts  came  last  to  be  paid,  he  explained  very  fully  the 

M 


122  '  AMERICAN 

success  of  his  undertaking.  He  told  the  house  of  Lords, 
that  he  had  attemptf  d  to  reduce  the  charges  of  the  King's 
tables  and  his  kitchen.  The  thing,  Sir,  was  not  below 
him.  He  knew  that  there  is  nothing  interesting  in  the 
concerns  of  men  whom  we  love  and  honor,  that  is  beneath 
our  attention.  ''  Love,"  says  one  of  our  old  poets,  ''  es- 
teems no  office  mean  ;"  and  with  still  more  spirit,  "  entire 
affection  scorneth  nicer  hands."  Frugality,  Sir,  is  found- 
ed on  the  principle,  that  all  riches  have  limits.  A  royal 
household,  grown  enormous  even  in  the  meanest  depart- 
ments, may  weaken  and  perhaps  destroy  all  energy  in  the 
highest  offices  of  the  state.  The  gorging  a  royal  kitchen 
may  stint  and  famish  the  negotiations  of  a  kingdom. 
Therefore  the  object  was.  Worthy  of  his,  was  worthy  of 
any  man's  attention. 

In  consequence  of  this  noble  Lord's  resolution  (as  he 
told  the  other  house,)  he  reduced  several  tables,  and  put 
the  persons  entitled  to  them  upon  board  wages,  much  to 
their  own  satisfaction.  But,  unluckily,  subsequent  duties 
requiring  constant  attendance,  it  was  not  possible  to  pre- 
vent their  being  fed  where  they  were  employed  ;  and  thus 
this  first  step  towards  economy  doubled  the  expense. 

There  was  another  disaster  far  more  doleful  than  this. 
I  shall  state  it,  as  the  cause  of  that  misfortune  lies  at  the 
bottom  of  almost  all  our  prodigality.  Lord  Talbot 
attempted  to  reform  the  kitchen  ;  but  such,  as  he  well 
observed,  is  the  consequence  of  having  duty  done  by  one 
person,  whilst  another  enjoys  the  emolument,  that  he 
found  himself  frustrated  in  all  his  designs.  On  that  rock 
his  whc4e  adventure  split — his  whole  scheme  of  economy 
was  dashed  to  pieces ;  his  department  became  more  ex- 
pensive than  ever — the  civil  dtbt  accumulated — Why  ?  It 
w.  s  M  uly  from  a  cause  which,  though  perfectly  adequate 
to  the  fleet,  om  would  not  have  instantly  guessed — it  was 
because  the  tunispit  in  the  King's  kitchen  was  a  member  of 
parliament.     The   King's  domestic  servants  were  all  un- 

dovu his  tradesman  remained  unpaid  and  became  baiik- 

^xxm-^-because  the  tiiriispit  in  the  King's  kitchen  was  a 
member  of  parliament,  his  Majesty's  slumbers  were  in- 
terrupted ;  his  piilcw  was  stuff  d  with  thorns ;  and  his 
peace  of  mind  entirdv  broke-  —because  the  King's  turn- 
spit was  a  member  of  parliament.     The  judge*  were  un- 


SPEAKER.  123 

paid,  the  justice  of  the  kingdom  bent  and  gave  away  ;  the 
foreign  ministers  remained  inactive  and  unprovided  ;  the 
system  of  Europe  was  dissolved  ;  the  chain  of  our  alliances 
were  broken  ;  all  the  wheels  of  government  at  home  and 
abroad  were  stopped — because  the  King-^s  turnspit  zvas  a 
member  of  parliament.  Such,  Sir,  was  the  situation  of 
aif  .irs,  and  su  :h  thi  cause  of  that  situation,  when  his  Ma- 
jesty came  a  second  time  to  Parliament,  to  desire  the  pay- 
ment of  those  debts  which  the  employment  of  its  members 
in  various  offices  visible  and  invisible  had  occasioned.  I 
believe  that  a  like  fate  will  attend  every  attempt  at  eco- 
nomy by  detail  under  similar  circumstances,  and  in  every 
department. 

To  avoid  frittering  and  crumbling  down  the  attention 
by  a  blind  unsystr^matic  observance  of  every  trifle,  it  has 
ever  been  found  to  be  the  best  way  to  do  all  things  which 
are  great  in  the  total  amount,  and  minute  in  the  compo- 
nent parts,  by  a  general  contract.  No  dealing  is  exempt 
from  the  possibility  of  fraud.  But  by  a  contract  on  a 
matter  certain,  you  have  this  advantage,  you  are  sure  to 
know  the  utmost  extent  of  the  fraud  to  which  you  itte 
subject.  By  a  contract  with  a  person  in  his  own  trade 
you  are  sure  you  shall  not  suffer  by  want  of  skilL — but 
what  skill  can  members  of  Parliament  obtain  in  that  low 
kind  of  province  ?  What  pleasure  can  they  have  in  the 
execution  of  that  kind  of  duty?  And  if  they  should  ne- 
glect it,  how  does  it  affect  their  interest,  when  we  know 
that  it  is  their  vote  in  Parliament,  and  not  their  diligence 
in  cookery  or  catering,  that  recomnricnds  them  to  their  of- 
fice,  or  keeps  them  in  it? 

The  same  clue  of  principle  leads  us  through  the  laby- 
rinth of  the  other  departments.  What,  Sir,  is  there  in 
the  office  of  the  great  wardrobe  that  may  not  be  executed 
by  the  lord  chamberlain  himself?  He  has  an  honorable 
appointment ;  he  has  time  sufficient  to  attend  to  the  duty; 
and  he  has  the  vice-chamberlain  to  assist  him.  Why 
should  he  not  deal  also  by  contract  for  all  things  belong- 
ing to  this  office,  and  carry  his  estimates  first  and  the  re- 
port of  the  execution  in  its  proper  time  for  payment  di- 
rectly to  the  board  of  treasury  itself?  By  a  single  opera- 
tion, the  expenses  of  a  department,  which  for  naked  walls, 


124  AMERICAN 

or  walls  hung  with  cobwebs,  has  in  a  few  years  cost  the 
crown  150,0(X)/.  may  at  It-ngth  hope  for  regulation  ? 

To  what  end.  Sir,  does  die  office  of  removing  the  ward- 
robe serve  at  all  i  Why  should  a  jewel  office  exist,  for  the 
soit  purpose  of  taxing  the  King's  gifts  of  plate  ?  Its  object 
falls  naturally  wuhin  the  cha}7iberlain'*s  province^  and  ought 
to  be  under  his  care  and  inspection  without  any  fee. 

The  board  of  -works^  which,  in  the  seven  years  preced- 
ing 1777,  has  cost  towards  400,000/.  and  has  not  cost  less 
in  proportion  from  the  bf:ginning  of  the  reign,  is  under 
the  vrry  same  description  of  all  the  other  ill-contrived  es- 
tablishments. For  all  this  expense  we  do  not  see  a  building 
o\  i\v:,  size  and  importance  of  a  pigeon-house.  The  good 
works  of  that  board  of  works  are  as  carefully  concealed  as 
other  good  works  ought  to  be.  They  are  perfectly  invi- 
sible :  but  though  it  is  the  perfection  of  charity  to  be  con- 
cealed, it  is.  Sir,  the  property  and  glory  of  magnificence 
to  appear  and  stand  forward  to  the  eye. 

That  board,  which  ought  to  be  a  concern  of  builders 
and  such  like,  and  of  none  else,  is  turned  into  a  junto  of 
w  ambers  of  Parliament.  That  office  too  has  a  treasury 
and  a  paymaster  of  its  own  ;  and  lest  the  arduous  affairs 
of  that  unimportant  exchequer  should  be  too  fatiguing, 
that  paymaster  has  a  deputy  to  partake  his  profits,  and  re- 
lieve his  cares.  I  therefore,  propose  to  pull  down  this 
whole  ill-contrived  scaffolding  which  obstructs  rather  than 
forw.  rds  our  public  works, — to  take  away  its  treasury, — 
to  put  the  whole  into  the  hands  of  a  real  builder,  who  shall 
not  be  a  member  of  Parliament — and  to  oblige  hmi  by  a 
previous  estimate  and  final  payment  to  appear  twice  at  the 
treasury,  before  the  public  can  be  loaded." 


Extract  from  Mr.  Burkes  Speech  to  the  Electors  of  Bris- 
tol^ hi  1780,  in  justification  of  his  conduct  as  their  Re- 
presentative^ against  certain  objections  made  to  it — one 
ofzvhich  zvas,  that  07i  the  qiiestion'of  the  Irish  Trade Jie 
had  acted  more  as  a  native  of  Ireland^  than  as  an  English 
Mem  ber  of  Par  Ham  en  t. 

"  I  was  an  Irishman  in  the  Irish  business,  just  as  much 
as  I  was  an  American,  when,  on  the  same  principles,  I 


SPEAKER.  125 

wished  you  to  concede  to  America,  at  a  time  when  she 
prayed  concession  at  our  feet.  Just  as  much  was  I  an 
American,  when  I  wished  parli  im  nt  to  offer  terms  in 
victory,  and  not  to  wait  the  hour  of  defeat,  for  milking 
good,  by  weakness  and  by  supp^c^j-ion,  a  claim  of  prero- 
gative, pre-eminence,  and  authority. 

"  Instead  of  requiring  it  from  me  as  a  point  of  duty, 
to  kindle  with  your  passions,  had  you  all  been  as  cool  as 
I  was,  you  would  have  saved  disgraces  and  distresses  that 
are  unutterable.  Do  you  remember  our  commission  ?  We 
s-nt  out  a  solemn  embassy,  across  the  Atlantic  ocean,  to 
lay  the  crown,  the  peerage,  the  commons  of  Great  Bri- 
tain, at  the  feet  of  the  American  congress.  That  our  dis- 
grace might  want  no  sort  of  brightening  and  burnishing ; 
observe  who  they  were  that  cou-posed  this  famous  em- 
*bassy.  My  Lord  Carlisle  is  among  the  first  ranks  of 
our  nobllit}'.  He  is  the  identical  man  who  but  two  years 
before  had  been  put  forward,  at  the  opening  of  a  session 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  as  the  mover  of  a  haughty  and 
rigorous  address  against  America,  He  was  put  in  the 
front  of  the  embassy  of  submission.  Mr.  Eden  was  taken 
from  the  office  of  Lord  Suffolk,  to  whom  he  was  then 
nnder-secretary  of  state  ;  from  the  office  of  that  Lorcf 
Suffolk,  who  but  a  few  weeks  before,  in  his  place  in  par- 
liament, did  not  deign  to  inquire  where  a  congress  ot 
vagrants  was  to  be  found.  This  Lord  Suffolk  sent  Mr. 
Eden  to  find  these  vagrants^  without  knowing  where  the 
Ki'ig's  generals  were  to  be  found,  who  were  joined  in  the 
same  conmission  of  supplicating  those' whom  they  were 
sent  to  subdue.  They  enter  the  capital  of  America  only 
to  abandon  it;  and  these  assertors  and  representatives  ol 
the  dignitv  of  England,  at  the  tail  of  a  flying  army,  let 
fly  their  Parthian  shafts  of  memorials  and  remonstrances 
at  random  behind  them.  Their  promises  and  their  offers, 
their  flatteries  aud  their  menaces  were  all  despised  ;  and 
we  were  saved  the  disgrace  of  their  formal  reception,  only 
because  the  congress  scorned  to  receive  them  ;  w^iiilst  the 
state-house  of  independent  Philadelphia  opened  her  doors 
to  the  public  entry  of  the  ambassador  of  France*  From 
war  and  blood  we  went  to  submission ;  and  from  submis- 
sion plunged  back  again  to  war  and  blood  ;  to  desolate  ami 
be  desolated,  without  measure,  hope,  or  end.     1  am-  i*. 

M  2 


126  AMERICAxNj 

Royalist— 1  blushed  for  this  degradation  of  the  crown.  I 
am  a  Whig — I  blushed  for  the  dishonor  of  parliament.  I 
air.  a  true  Enghshman — I  felt  to  the  quick  for  the  dis- 
gryce  of  England.  I  am  a  Man — I  felt  for  the  melan- 
choly reverse  of  human  affairs,  in  the  fall  of  the  first 
power  in  the  world. 

**  To  read  whHt  was  approaching  in  Ireland,  in  the 
black  and  bloody  characters  of  the  American  war,  was  a 
painful,  but  it  was  a  necessary  part  of  my  public  duty. 
For,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  your  fond  desires,  nor  mine, 
that  can  alter  the  nature  of  things  ;  by  contending  aQ;ainst 
Hvhich,  whit  have  we  got,  or  evt;  shall  get,  but  defeat  and 
shame  ?  I  did  not  obey  your  instructions — No.  I  con- 
formed to  the  instructions  of  truth  and  nature,  and  main- 
tained your  interest,  against  your  opinions,  with  a  con-, 
stancy  that  became  me.  A  representative  worthy  of  you 
ought  to  be  a  person  of  stability.  I  am  to  look,  indeed, 
to  your  opinions  ;  but  to  such  opinions  as  you  and  I  must 
have  five  years  hence.  I  was  not  to  look  to  the  flash  of 
the  day.  I  knew  that  your  chose  me,  in  my  place,  along 
with  others,  to  be  a  pillar  of  the  state,  and  not  a  weather- 
cock on  the  top  of  the  edifice,  exalted  for  my  levity  and 
versatility,  and  of  no  use  but  to  indicate  the  shiftings  of 
every  fashionable  gale.  Would  to  God,  the  value  of  my 
sentiments  on  Ireland  and  on  America  had  been  at  this 
day  subject  of  doubt  and  discussion  !  No  matter  v/,hat  my 
suff.rn-gs  had  been,  so  that  this  kingdom  had  kept  the  au- 
thority I  wished  it  to  maintain,  by  a  great  foresight,  and 
by  an  equitable  temperance  in  the  use  of  its  powers." 


Extract  from  the  same,  in  ayiswer  to  a  charge  made  against 
him,  of  having  forsaken  the  interest  ofCom?nerce  by  sup- 
vorting  a  Bill  brought  into  Parliament  btj  Lord  Beau- 
diamp,  to  relieve  Insolvent  Debtors. 


'•'•  Genfiemen,  I  never  relished  acts  of  grace,  nor  ever 
submitted  to  them  but  from  despair  of  better*  They  are 
a  dishonorable  invention,  by  which,  not  from  humanity, 
aot  from  policy  ;  but  merely  because  we  have  not  room 
iiooiigh  to  hold  these  victims  of  the  absurdity  of  our  laws, 
v'^  *'irn  locv^  uDon  the  public  three  or   four  thousand. 


SPEAKER.  127 

naked  wretches,  corrupted  by  the  habits,  debased  by  the 
Ignominy  of  a  prison.  If  the  creditor  had  a  right  to  those 
carcasses  as  a  natural  security  for  his  property,  I  am  sure 
we  have  no  right  to  deprive  him  of  that  security.  But 
if  a  few  pounds  of  flesh  were  not  necessary  to  his  secu- 
rity, we  had  not  a  right  to  detain  the  unfortunate  debtor, 
without  any  benefit  at  all  to  the  person  who  confined  him. 
Take  it  as  you  will,  we  commit  injustice.  Now  Lord 
Beauchamp's  bill  intended  to  do  deliberately,  and  with 
great  caution  and  circumspection,  upon  each  several  case, 
and  with  all  attention  tc  the  just  claimant,  what  acts  of 
grace  do  in  a  much  greater  measure,  and  with  very  little 
care,  caution,  and  deliberation. 

"  I  suspect  that  here  too,  if  we  contrive  to  oppose  this 
bill,  we  shall  be  found  in  a  struggle  r.gainst  the  nature  of 
things.  For  as  we  grow  enlightened,  the  public  will  not 
bear,  for  any  length  of  time,  to  pay  for  the  maintenance 
of  whole  armies  of  prisoners,  nor,  at  their  own  expense, 
r-ubmit  to  ket- p  jails  as  a  sort  of  garrisons,  merely  to  for- 
tify their  absurd  prmciple  of  making  men  judges  in  their 
own  cause.  For  credit  has  little  or  no  concern  in  this 
cruelty.  I  speak  in  a  commercial  assembly.  You  know 
that  credit  is  given,  because  a  capital  rnust  be  employed  j 
that  men  calculate  the  chances  of  insolvency  ;  and  they 
either  withhold  the  credit,  or  make  the  debtor  pay  the 
risk  in  the  price.  The  counting-house  has  no  alliance 
with  the  jail.  Holland  understands  trade  as  well  as  we  ; 
and  she  has  done  more  than  this  obnoxious  bill  intended 
to  do.  There  was  not,  when  Mr.  Howard  visited  Hol- 
land, more  than  one  prisoner  for  debt  in  the  great  city  of 
Rotterdam.  Although  Lord  Beauchamp's  act  (which 
was  previous  to  this  bill,  and  intended  to  feel  the  way  for 
it)  has  already  preserved  liberty  to  thousands  ;  and  though 
it  is  not  three  years  since  the  last  act  of  grace  passed,  yet, 
by  Mr.  Hqward^s  last  account,  there  were  near  three- 
thousand  again  in  jail.  I  cannot  name  this  gentleman 
without  remarking,  that  his  labors  and  writings  have  done 
miich  to  open  the  eyes  and  hearts  of  mankind.  He  has 
visited  all  Europe , — not  to  survey  the  su.nptuousness  of 
palaces,  or  the  staieJiness  of  templrs;  not  to  make  accu- 
rate measurements  of  the  remains  of  ancient  grandeur^ 
nor  to  form  a  scale  of  the  curiosity  of  modern  art ;  not 


128  AMERICAN 

to  collect  medals,  or  to  collate  manuscripts  ;-— but  to  dive 
into  the  depths  of  dungeons  ;  to  plunge  into  the  infection 
of  hospitals ;  to  survey  the  mansions  of  sorrow  and  pain  ; 
to  take  the  gage  and  dimensions  of  misery,  depression, 
and  contempt ;  to  remember  the  forgotten,  to  attend  to 
the  neglected,  to  visit  the  forsaken,  and  to  compare  and 
collate  the  distresses  of  all  men  in  all  countries.  His 
plan  is  original ;  and  it  is  as  full  of  genius  as  it  is  of  hu- 
manity. It  was  a  voyage  of  discovery  ;  a  circumnaviga- 
tion of  charity.  Already  the  benefit  of  his  labor  is  felt 
more  or  less  in  every  country  :  I  hope  he  will  anticipate 
his  final  reward,  by  seeing  all  its  effects  fully  realised  in 
his  own.  He  will  receive,  not  by  retail,  but  in  gross,  the 
reward  of  those  who  visit  the  prisoner ;  and  he  has  so 
forestalled  and  monopolized  this  branch  of  charity,  that 
there  will  be,  I  trust,  little  room  to  merit  by  such  acts  of 
benevolence  hereafter." 


Extract  fr 0771  the  same^  in  cm.^xver  to  a  charge  brought 
against  him  of  being  unfriendly  to  the  Protestant  Reli- 
gion^ he  having  voted  for  the  repeal  of  parts  of  a  penal 

■    statute  against  Catholics. 

"  A  statute  was  fabricated  in  the  year  1699,  by  which 
the  saying  mass  (a  church  service  in  the  Latin  tongue, 
not  exactly  the  same  as  our  liturgy,  but  very  near  it,  and 
containing  no  o§ence  whatever  against  the  laws,  or 
against  good  morals)  was  forged  into  a  crime  punishable 
with  perpetual  imprisonment.  The  teaching  school,  an 
useful  and  virtuous  occupation,  even  the  teaching  in  a 
private  family,  was  in  evt-ry  Catholic  subjected  to  the 
same  unprcportionecl  punishment.  Your  industry,  and 
the  bread  of  your  children,  was  taxed  for  a  pecuniary  re- 
ward to  stimulate  avarice  to  do  what  nature  refused,  to 
inform  and  prosecute  on  this  law.  Every  Roman  Catho- 
lic was,  under  the  same  act,  to  forfeit  his  estate  to  his 
nearest  Protestant  relation,  until,  through  a  profession  of 
what  he  did  not  beiieve,  he  redeemed  by  his  hypocrisy, 
what  the  law  had  transferred  to  the  kinsman  as  the  re- 
compense of  his  profligacy.  When  thus  turned  out  of 
doors  from  his  paternal  estate,  he  was  disabled  from  ac- 


SPEAKER.  129 

quiring  any  other  by  any  industry,  donation,  or  chanty  ; 
but  was  rendered  a  foreigner  in  his  native  land,  only  be- 
cause he  retained  the  religion,  along  with  the  property, 
handed  down  to  him  from  those  who  had  been  the  old  in- 
habitants of  that  land  before  him. 

*'  Does  any  one,  who  hears  me,  approve  this  scheme  of 
things,  or  think  there  is  common  justice,  common  sense, 
or  common  honesty  in  any  part  of  it  ?  If  any  does,  let  him 
say  it,  and  I  am  ready  to  discuss  the  point' with  temper 
and  candor.  But  instead  of  approving,  I  perceive  a  vir- 
tuous indignation  beginning  to  rise  in  your  minds  on  the 
mere  cold  stating  of  the  statute. 

"  The  eflects  of  the  act  have  been  as  mischievous,  as 
its  origin  was  ludicrous  and  shameful.  From  that  time 
every  person  of  that  communion,  lay  and  ecclesiastic,  has 
been  obliged  to  fly  from  the  face  of  day.  The  clergy, 
concealed  in  garrets  of  private  houses,  or  obliged  to  take 
a  shelter,  (hardly  safe  to  themselves,  but  infinitely  dan- 
gerous to  their  country,)  under  the  privileges  of  foreign 
ministers,  officiated  as  their  servants,  and  und'  r  their 
protection.  The  whole  body  of  the  Catholics,  condemn- 
ed to  beggary  and  ignorance  in  their  native  land,  have 
been  obliged  to  learn  the  principles  of  letters,  at  the  ha-, 
zard  of  all  their  other  principles,  from  the  charity  of  your 
enemies.  They  have  been  taxed  to  their  ruin  at  the  plea- 
sure of  necessitous  and  profligate  relations,  and  according 
to  the  measures  of  their  necessity  and  profligacy.  Exam- 
ples of  this  are  many  and  affecting.  Some  of  them  are 
known  by  a  friend  who  stands  near  me  in  this  hall.  It  is 
but  six  or  seven  years  since  a  clergyman  by  the  name  of 
Malony,  a  man  of  morals,  neither  guilty  nor  accused  of 
any  thing  noxious  to  the  state,  was  condemned  to  perpe- 
tual imprisonment  for  exercising  the  functions  of  his  reli- 
gion ;  and  after  lying  in  jail  for  two  or  three  years,  was 
relieved  by  the  mercy  of  government  from  perpetual  im- 
prisonment, on  condition  of  p  rpetual  banishment,  A  bro- 
ther of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  a  Talbot,  a  name  re- 
spectable in  this  countr)-,  whilst  its  glory  is  any  part  of  its 
concern,  was  hauled  to  the  bar  of  the  Old  Bailey,  among 
common  felons,  and  only  escaped  the  same  doom,  either 
by  some  error  in  the  process,  or  that  the  wretch  who 
brought  him  there  could  not  correctly  describe  his  per- 


130  AMERICAN 

son  ;  I  now  forget  which.  In  short,  the  persecution  would 
never  have  relented  for  a  moment,  if  the  judges  superseding 
(though  with  an  ambiguous  example)  the  strict  rule  of 
their  official  duty,  by  the  higher  obligations  of  their  con" 
sciences,  did  not  constantly  throw  off  everv  difficulty  in 
the  way  of  such  informers.  But  so  ineffectual  is  the 
power  of  legal  evasion  against  legal  inquiry,  that  it  was 
but  the  other  day,  that  a  lady  of  condition,  beyond  the 
middle  of  life,  was  on  the  point  of  being  stripped  of  her 
whole  fortune  by  a  near  relation,  to  whom  she  had  been  a 
friend  and  benefactor;  and  she  must  have  been  totally 
ruined,  without  a  power  of  redress  or  mitigation  from  the 
courts  of  law,  had  not  the  legislature  itself  rushed  in,  and 
by  a  special  act  of  parliai^.jent  rescued  her  from  the  injus- 
tice r,f  its  own  statutes.  One  of  tht-  acts  authorizing  such 
things  was  that  which  we  in  part  rep.  aUd,  knowmg  what 
our  duty  was,  and  doing  that  duty  as  men  of  honor  and 
virtue,  as  good  Protrstants,  and  as  good  citizens.  Let 
him  stand  forth  that  disapproves  what  we  have  done. 

"  Gentlemen,  bad  laws  arc  the  worst  sort  of  tyranny. 
In  such  a  country  as  this  they  are  of  all  bad  things  the 
worst,  worst  by  far  than  any  where  else  ;  and  they  derive 
a  particular  malignity  even  from  the  wisdom  and  sound- 
ness of  the  rest  of  our  institutions.  For  very  obvious 
reasons  you  cannot  trust  the  crown  with  a  dispensing 
power  over  any  of  your  laws.  However,  a  government, 
be  it  as  bad  as  it  may,  will,  in  the  exercise  of  a  discre- 
tionary power,  discriminate  times  and  persons  ;  and  will 
not  ordinarily  pursue  any  man,  when  his  own  safety  is  not 
concerned.  A  mercenary  informer  knows  no  distinction. 
Under  such  a  system,  the  obnoxious  people  are  slaves,  not 
only  to  the  government,  but  they  live  at  the  mercy  of  every 
individual ;  they  are  at  once  the  slaves  of  the  whole  com- 
munity and  of  every  part  of  it ;  and  the  worst  and  most 
unmerciful  men  are  those  on  whose  goodness  they  most 
depend. 

'*  In  this  situation  men  not  only  shrink  from  the  frowns 
of  a  stern  magistrate  ;  but  they  are  obliged  to  fly  from 
their  very  species.  The  seeds  of  destruction  are  sown  in 
civil  intercourse,  in  social  habitudes.  The  blood  of  whole- 
some kindred  is  infected.  Their  tables  and  beds  are  sur- 
rounded with  snares.  All  the  means  given  by  Providence 


SPEAKER.  131 

to  make  life  safe  and  comfortable,  are  perverted  into  in- 
struments of  terror  and  torment.  This  species  of  univer- 
sal subserviency,  that  makes  the  very  servant,  who  waits 
behind  your  chair,  the  arbiter  of  your  life  and  fortune,  has 
such  a  tendency  to  degrade  and  abase  mankind,  and  to 
deprive  them  of  that  assured  and  liberal  state  of  mind, 
which  alone  can  make  us  what  we  ought  to  be,  that  I  vow 
to  God  I  would  sooner  bring  myself  to  put  a  man  to  im- 
mediate death  for  opinions  I  disliked,  and  so  to  get  rid  of 
the  man  and  his  opinions  at  once,  than  to  fret  him  with  a 
feverish  being,  tainted  with,  the  jail-distemper  of  a  conta- 
gious servitude,  to  keep  him  above  ground  an  animated 
mass  of  putrefaction,  corrupted  himself,  and  corrupting  all 
about  him," 


Extract  from  the  same. 

"  I  must  fairly  tell  you,  that  so  far  as  my  principles  are 
concerned,  (principles,  that  I  hope  will  only  depart  with 
my  last  breath,)  that  I  have  no  idea  of  a  liberty  uncon- 
nected with  honesty  and  justice.  Nor  do  I  believe,  that 
any  good  constitutions  of  government  or  of  freedom,  can 
find  it  necessary  for  their  security  to  doom  any  part  of  the 
people  to  a  permanent  slavery.  Such  a  constitution  of 
freedom,  if  such  can  be,  is  in  effect  no  more  than  another 
name  for  the  tyranny  of  the  strongest  faction ;  and  fac- 
tions in  republics  have  been,  and  are,  full  as  capable  as 
monarchs,  of  the  most  cruel  oppression  and  injustice.  It 
is  but  too  true,  that  the  love  and  even  the  very  idea  of 
genuine  liberty  is  extremely  rare.  It  is  but  too  true,  that 
there  are  many,  whose  whole  scheme  of  freedom  is  made 
up  of  pride,  perverseness,  and  insolence.  They  feel  them- 
selves in  a  state  of  thraldom,  they  imagine  that  their  souls 
are  cooped  and  cabbined  in,  unless  th  y  have  some  man, 
or  som  body  of  men,  dependent  on  their  mercy.  This 
desire  of  huving  some  one  below  them,  descends  to  those 
who  are  the  very  lowest  of  all;  and  a  protestant  cobler, 
debased  by  his  poverty,  but  exalted  by  his  share  of  the 
ruling  chuich,  feels  a  pride  in  knowing  it  is  by  his  gene- 
rosity alone,  that  the  peer,  whose  footman's  instep  he 
measures,  is  able  to  keep  his  chaplam  from  a  jail.     This 


13?  AMERICAN 

disposition  is  the  true  source  of  the  passion,  which  many 
men,  in  very  humble  life,  have  taken  to  the  American  war. 
Our  subjects  in  America ;  our  colonies  j  our  dependants. 
This  lust  of  party-power  is  the  liberty  they  hunger  and 
thirst  for  ;  and  this  Syren  song  of  ambition  has  charmed 
ears,  that  one  would  have  thought  were  never  organised 
to  that  sort  of  music.  This  way  oi proscribing  the  citizens 
by  denominations  and  general  descriptions^  dignifit-d  by 
the  name  of  reason  of  state,  and  security  for  constitutions 
and  commonwealths,  is  nothing  better  at  bottom  than  the 
miserable  invention  of  an  ungenerous  ambition,  which 
would  fain  hold  the  sacred  trust  of  power,  without  any  of 
the  virtues,  or  any  of  the  energies,  that  give  a  title  to  it ; 
a  receipt  of  policy  made  up  of  a  detestable  compound  of 
malice,  cowardice,  and  sloth.  They  would  govern  men 
against  their  will ;  but  in  that  government  they  would  be 
discharged  from  the  exercise  of  vigilance,  providence,  and 
fortitude  ;  and  therefore,  that  they  may  sleep  on  their 
watch,  they  consent  to  take  some  one  division  of  the  so- 
ciety into  partnership  of  the  tyranny  over  the  rest.  But 
let  government,  in  what  form  it  may  be,  comprehend  the 
whole  in  its  justice,  and  restrain  the  "suspicious  by  its  vigi- 
lance ;  let  it  keep  watch  and  ward  ;  let  it  discover  by  its 
sagacity,  and  punish  by  its  firmness,  all  delinquency  against 
its  power,  whenever  delinquency  exists  in  the  overt  acts ; 
and  then  it  will  be  as  safe  as  God  and  nature  ever  intend- 
ed it  should  be.  Crimes  are  the  acts  of  individuals,  and 
not  of  denominiitions  ;  and  therefore  arbitrarily  to  class 
men  under  general  descriptions,  in  order  to  prescribe  and 
punish  them  in  the  lump  for  a  presumed  delinquency,  of 
which  perhaps  but  a  part,  perhaps  none  at  all,  are  guilty, 
is  indeed  a  compendious  method,  and  saves  a  world  of 
trouble  about  proof;  but  such  a  method,  instead  ot  being 
law,  is  an  act  of  unnatural  rebellion  against  the  legal  do- 
minion of  reason  and  justice  ;  and  this  vice,  in  any  con- 
stitution that  entertains  it  at  one  time  or  other  will  cer- 
tainly bring  on  its  ruin. 

"  We  are  told  that  this  is  not  a  religious  persecution  : 
and  its  abettors  are  loud  in  disclaiming  all  severities  on 
account  of  consrit^nce.  Very  fine  indeed!  then  let  it  be 
so;  they  are  not  persecutors  ;  they  are  only  tyrants.  With 
all  my  heart.     1  am  perfectly  indifferent  concerning  the 


SPEAKER.  133 

pretexts  upon  which  we  torment  one  another  ;  or  whether 
it  be  for  the  constitution  of  the  church  of  England,  or  for 
the  constitution  of  the  state  of  England,  the  people  choose 
to  make  their  fellow-creatures  wretched.  When  we  were 
sent  into  a  place  of  authority,  you  that  sent  us  had  your- 
selves but  one  commission  to  give.  You  could  give  us 
none  to  wrong  or  oppress,  or  even  to  suffer  any  kind  of 
oppression  or  wrong,  on  any  grounds  whatsoever ;  not  on 
political,  as  in  the  affairs  of  America ;  not  on  commer- 
cial as  in  those  of  Ireland ;  not  in  civil,  as  in  the  laws  for 
debt ;  not  in  religious,  as  in  the  statutes  against  Protestant 
or  Catholic  dissenters.  The  diversified  but  connected  fa- 
bric of  universal  justice  is  well  cramped  and  bolted  to- 
gether in  all  its  parts  ;  and  depend  upon  it,  I  never  have 
employed,  and  I  never  shall  employ,  any  engine  of  power 
which  may  come  into  my  hands,  to  wrench  it  asunder.  All 
shall  stand,  if  I  can  help  it,  and  all  shall  stand  connected. 
After  all,  to  complete  this  work,  much  remains  to  be 
done  ;  much  in  the  East,  much  in  the  West.  But  great 
as  the  work  is,  if  our  will  be  ready,  our  powers  are  not 
deficient. 

''  4^ince  you  have  suffered  me  to  trouble  you  so  much 
on  this  subject,  permit  me  gentlemen,  to  detain  you  a  lit- 
tle longer.  1  am  indeed  most  solicitous  to  give  you  per- 
fect satisfaction.  I  find  there  are  some  of  a  better  and 
softer  nature  than  the  persons  with  whom  I  have  supposed 
myself  in  debate,  who  neither  think  ill  of  the  act  of  relief, 
nor  by  any  means  to  desire  the  repeal,  yet  who,  not  ac- 
cusing but  lamenting  what  was  done,  on  account  of  the 
consequences,  have  frequently  expressed  their  wish  that 
the  late  act  had  never  been  made.  Some  of  this  descrip- 
tion, and  persons  of  worth,  I  have  met  with  in  this  city. 
They  conceive,  that  the  prejudices,  whatever  they  might 
be,  of  a  large  part  of  the  people,  ought  not  to  have  been 
shocked  ;  that  their  opinions  ought  to  have  been  previous- 
ly taken,  and  much  attended  to ;  and  that  thereby  the  late 
horrid  scenes  might  have  been  prevented. 

"  I  confess,  my  notions  are  widely  different ;  and  I 
never  was  less  sorry  for  any  action  of  my  life.  I  like  the 
biH  the  better,  on  account  of  the  events  of  all  kinds  that 
followed  it.  It  relieved  the  real  sufferers;  it  strengthened 
the  state,  and,  by  the  disorders  that  ensued,  we  had  clear 

N 


134  AMERICAN 

evidence  that  therfi  lurked  a  temper  somewhere,  which 
ought  not  to  be  fostered  by  the  laws.  No  ill  consequences 
whatever  could  be  attributed  to  the  act  itself.  We  knew 
beforehand,  or  we  were  poorly  instructed,  that  toleration 
IS  odious  to  the  intolerant;  freedom  to  oppressors ;  pro- 
perty to  robbers ;  and  all  kinds  and  degrees  of  prosperity 
to  the  envious.  We  knew,  that  all  these  kinds  of  men 
would  gladly  gratify  their  evil  disposition  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  law  and  religion,  if  they  could :  if  they  could  not, 
yet,  to  make  way  to  their  objects,  they  would  do  their 
utmost  to  subvert  all  religion  and  all  law.  This  we  cer- 
tainly knew.  But  knowing  this,  is  there  any  reason,  be- 
cause thieves  break  in  and  steal,  and  thus  bring  detriment 
to  you,  and  draw  ruin  on  themselves,  that  I  am  to  be  sor- 
ry that  you  are  in  possession  of  shops,  and  of  warehouses, 
and  of  wholesome  laws  to  protect  them  ?  Are  you  to  build 
no  houses,  because  desperate  men  may  pull  them  down 
upon  their  own  heads  ?  Or,  if  a  malignant  wretch  will  cut 
his  own  throat,  because  he  sees  you  give  alms  to  the  ne- 
cessitous and  deserving ;  shall  his  destruction  be  attribut- 
ed to  your  charity,  and  not  to  his  own  deplorable  mad- 
ness ?  If  we  repent  of  our  good  actions,  what,  I  praj^^ou, 
is  left  for  our  faults  and  follies  ?  It  is  not  the  beneficence 
of  the  laws,  it  is  the  unnatural  temper  which  beneffcence 
can  fret  and  sour,  that  is  to  be  lamented.  It  is  this  tem- 
per, which,  by  all  rational  means,  ought  to  be  sweetened 
and  corrected.  If  froward  men  should  refuse  this  cure, 
can  they  vitiate  any  thing  but  themselves  ?  Does  evil  so 
re-act  upon  good,  as  not  only  to  retard  its  motipn,  but  to 
change  its  nature  ?  If  it  can  so  operate,  then  good  men 
will  always  be  in  the  power  of  the  bad  ;  and  virtue,  by  a 
dreadful  reverse  of  o:der,  must  lie  under  perpetual  sub- 
jection and  bondage  to  vice. 

"  As  to  the  opinion  of  the  people,  which  some  think, 
in  such  cases,  is  to  be  implicitly  obeyed  ;  near  two  years 
tranquillity,  which  followed  the  act,  and  its  instant  imita- 
tion in  Ireland,  proved  abundantly,  that  the  late  horrible 
spirit  was,  in  a  great  measure,  the  act  of  insidious  art, 
and  perverse  industry,  and  gross  misrepresentation.  But 
suppose  that  the  dislike  had  been  much  more  deliberate, 
and  muce  more  general  than  I  am  persuaded  it  was — 
WheA  we  know  that  the  opinions  of  even  the  greatest 


SPEAKER.  135 

multitudes  are  the  standard  of  rectitude,  I  shall  think  my- 
self obliged  to  make  those  opinions  the  masters  of  my  con- 
science. But  if  it  be  doubted  whether  Omnipotence  it- 
self is  competent  to  alter  the  essential  constitution  of 
right  and  wrong,  sure  I  am,  that  such  thingSy  as  they  and 
I,  are  possessed  of  no  such  power.  No  man  carries  idv-* 
ther  than  I  do  the  policy  of  making  government  pleasing 
to  the  people.  But  the  widest  range  of  this  politic  com- 
plaisance is  confined  within  the  limits  of  justice.  I  would 
not  only  consult  the  interests  of  the  people,  but  I  would 
cheerfully  gratify  their  humours.  We  are  all  a  sort  of  child- 
ren that  must  be  soothed  and  managed.  I  think  I  am 
not  austere  or  formal  in  my  nature.  I  would  bear,  I  would 
even  myself  play  my  part  in,  any  innocent  buffooneries, 
to  divert  them.  But  I  never  will  act  the  tyrant  for  their 
amusement.  If  they  will  mix  malice  in  their  sports,  I 
shall  never  consent  to  throw  them  any  living,  sentient, 
creature  whatsoever,  no,  not  so  much  as  a  kitling  to 
torment. 

"  But,  if  I  profess  all  this  impolitic  stubbornness, 
"  I  may  chance  never  to  be  elected  into  parliament."  It 
is  certainly  not  pleasing  to  be  put  out  of  the  public  ser- 
vice. But  I  wish  to  be  a  member  of  parliament,  to  have 
my  share  of  doing  good  and  resisting  evil.  It  would 
therefore  be  absurd  to  renounce  my  objects,  in  order  to 
obtain  my  seat.  I  deceive  myself  indeed  most  grossly, 
if  I  had  not  much  rather  pass  the  remainder  of  my  life, 
hidden  in  the  recesses  of  the  deepest  obscurity,  feeding 
my  mind  even  with  the  visions  and  imaginations  of  such 
things,  than  to  be  placed  on  the  most  splendid  throne  of 
the  universe,  tantalized  with  a  denial  of  the  practice  of  all 
which  can  make  the  greatest  situation  any  other  than  the 
greatest  curse.  Gentlemen,  I  have  had  my  day.  I  cau 
never  sufficiently  express  my  gratitude  to  you  for  having 
set  me  in  a  place,  wherein  I  could  lend  the  slightest  help  to 
great  and  laudable  designs.  If  I  have  had  my  share  in  any 
measure  in  giving  quiet  to  private  property,  and  private 
conscience  ;  if  by  my  vote  I  have  aided  in  securing  to  fami- 
lies the  best  possession,  peace  ;  if  I  have  joined  in  recon- 
ciling kings  to  their  subjects,  and  subjects  to  their  prince; 
if  I  have  assisted  to  loosen  the  foreign  holdings  of  the  citi- 
zen, and  taught  him  to  look  for  his  protection  to  the  laws  of 


136  AMERICAN 

his  country,  and  for  his  comfort  to  the  good  will  of  his 
countrymen :  if  I  have  thus  taken  my  part  with  the  best 
of  men  in  the  best  of  their  actions,  I  can  shut  the  book — 
I  might  wish  to  read  a  page  or  two  more — but  this  is  e- 
nough  for  my  measure — I  have  not  lived  in  vain. 

«'  And  now,  gentlemen,  on  this  serious  day,  when  I 
come,  as  it  were,  to  make  up  my  account  with  you,  let  me 
take  to  myself  some  degree  of  honest  pride  on  the  nature 
of  the  charges  that  are  against  me.  I  do  not  here  stand 
before  you  accused  of  venality,  or  neglect  of  duty.  It 
is  not  said,  that,  in  the  long  period  of  my  service,  I  have, 
in  a  single  instance,  sacrificed  the  slightest  of  your  inter- 
ests to  my  ambition,  or  to  my  fortune.  It  is  not  alleged, 
that  to  gratify  any  anger,  or  revenge  of  my  own,  or  of 
my  party,  I  have  had  a  share  in  wronging  or  oppress- 
ing any  description  of  men,  or  any  one  man  in  any  des- 
cription. No !  the  charges  against  me  are  all  of  one 
kind,  that  I  have  pushed  the  principles  of  general  justice 
and  benevolence  too  far  j  further  than  a  cautious  policy 
would  warrant ;  and  further  than  the  opinions  of  many 
would  go  along  with  me. — In  every  accident  which  may 
happen  through  life,  in  pain,  in  sorrow,  in  depression, 
and  distress — I  will  call  to  mind  this  accusation,  and  be 
comforted." 


Mr.  Pitfs  Speech  ifi  1781,  on  Mr.  Burke^s  motion  for  an 
Econo7nical  Reform, 

[This  is  Mr.  Pitt's  first  Speech  in  Parliament.] 

Mr.  Pitt  said,  that  he  gave  the  most  hearty  consent  to 
what  had  fallen  from  his  honorable  friend  on  the  other  side 
of  the  house — that  a  proposition  for  the  retrenchment  of 
the  civil  list  revenue  oughtto  have  come  from  his  Majesty's 
ministers.  He  gave  his  entire  approbation  to  this  sen- 
timent. It  would  have  come  with  more  grace  ;  it  would 
have  come  with  more  benefit  to  the  public  service,  if  it 
had  sprung  from  the  royal  breast.  His  Majesty's  minis- 
ters ought  to  have  come  forward  and  proposed  a  reduction 
in  the  civil  list,  to  give  the  people  the  consolation  of 
knowing  that  their  Sovereign  participated  in  the  suffermgs 
of  the  empire,  and  presented  an  honourable  example  of 


SPEAKER, '  isr 

retrenchment  in   an  hour  of    general  difficulty.      They 
ought  to  have  consulted  the  glory  of  their  royal  masterj, 
and  have  seated  him  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  by  aba- 
ting from  magnificence  what  was  due  to  necessity.     In- 
stead of  waiting  for  the  slow  request  of  a  burthcned  peo- 
ple, they  should  have  courted  popularity  by  a  voluntary 
surrender  of  useless  revenue.    Far  more  agreeable  would 
it  have  been  to  that  house,  to  accede  than  to  propose  : 
much  more  gracious  to  have  observed  the  free  exercise  of 
royal  bounty  than  to  make  thp  appeal,  and  point  out  what 
was  right,  what  was  necessar}^      But  if  ministers   failed 
to   do  this  ;   if  ihey  interfered  between  the  benignity  of 
the  sovereign  and  the  distresses  of  his  people,  and  stopped 
the  tide   of  royal   sympathy,  was  that  a   reason  why  the 
house    of   commons,    his    Majest^'^s   public    counsellors, 
should  desist  from  a  measure  so  congenial  to  the  paternal 
feelings  of  the  sovereign,  so  applicable  to  the  wants  and 
miseries  of  the   people.'   The   natural  benificence  of  the 
royal  heart  would   be   gratif^t^d  by  the  seasonable  remit- 
tance.     And  surely  it  was  no  reason,  because   ministers 
failed  to  do  their  duty,  that  the  house  should  cease  to  at- 
te.-sd  to  theirs.     Acting  as  the  faithful  representatives  of 
tlic  people,  who  had  trusted  them,  they  ought  to  seize  oa 
every  o!)ject  of   equitable  resource  that   presi>nted  itself; 
and  surely  no'ie  v/erc  so  fair,  so  probable,  or  so  flattering 
as  retrenchment  and  economy.     The  obligations  of  their 
character  dc  manded  iVoin  them  not  to  hesitate  in  pursuing 
those  objects,  even  to  the  foot  of  th-  throne  ;  and  actuated 
by  duty,  to  advise  the  crown  to  part  with  useless  osten- 
tation, that  he  might  preserve  necessary  power  ;  to  abue 
a  littlv'.  of  pomp,  that  he  might  ascertain  respect  ;  to  dimi- 
nish a  little  of  exterior  grandeur,  that  he  might  increase 
and  secure  authentic  dignity.  Such  advice  would  become 
them,  as  the  counsellors  of  his  Majesty,  and   as  the  re- 
presentatives  of  the  people;  for   it  was  their   immediate 
duty,  as  the  commons  house  of  Parliament,  to  guard  the 
lives,  the  liberties,  and  the  properties  of  the  people.    The 
last  obligation  was  the  strongest,  it  was  more  immediate- 
ly incumbent  upon  them  to  guard  the  properties,  because 
they  w  :re  more  liable  to  invasion  by  the  secret  and  subtle 
attacks  of  influence,  than  either  their  lives  or  liberties. 
It  would  not  derogate  from  the  real  gloi-y  of  the  crown  to 
N2 


138  AMERICAN 

accept  of  the  advice.  It  would  be  no  diminution  of  true 
grandeur  to  yield  to  the  respectful  petitions  of  the  people. 
The  tutelage  of  that  house  might  be  a  hard  term  :  but  the 
guardianbhip  of  that  house  could  not  be  disgraceful  to  a 
constitutional  king.  The  abridgment  of  useless  and  un- 
nec«^ssary  expv  use  could  be  no  abatement  of  royalty.  Mag- 
nificence and  grandeur  were  not  inconsistent  with  retrench- 
m«  iit  and  economy,  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  a  time  of 
necessity  and  of  common  exertion,  solid  grandeur  was 
dependent  on  the  reduction  of  expense  :  And  it  was  the 
general  sentiment  and  observation  of  the  house,  that  e- 
conomy  was  at  this  time  essentially  necessary  to  national 
salvation.  This  had  been  the  language  of  the  noble  lord 
[lord  Nugent]  on  the  other  side  of  the  house,  and  he 
had  declared  that  if  the  bill  then  before  the  house  had 
provided  that  all  the  monies  to  be  derived  from  the  re- 
ductions proposed  were  be  applied  to  the  public  service, 
he  v/ould  have  given  his  hearty  concurrence  in  it,  and 
would  have  become  one  of  its  warmest  advocates.  Here 
then  he  begged  leave  to  join  issue  with  the  noble  lord.  He 
had  said  that  the  savings  were  to  be  appropriated  towards 
a  fui;d  for  creating  a  provision  for  the  royal  family  ;  and 
this  clause  he  had  found  in  the  bill  before  them.  He 
begged  to  inform  the  noble  lord,  that  there  was  a  clause 
in  this  bill  which  expressly  stated  th;^t  the  monies  arising 
from  the  reductions  proposed  shr^uld  be  directly  applied 
to  the  public  service.  The  only  merit  that  he  could  claim 
in  a  competition  with  the  noble  lord  was,  that  his  eyes 
were  somewhat  youviger  than  his,  and  he  would  read  the 
claus-  to  which  he  alluded.  He  here  read  the  clause  al« 
luded  to. 

This  was  the  clearest  refutation  of  the  noble  lord's  as- 
sertions, but  his  error  seemed  to  have  arisen  from  his 
having  taken  notice  of  another  clause  in  the  act,  which 
ordams,  that  the  monies  appropriated  to  the  payment  of 
annuities  to  be  granted  to  those  persons  whose  places 
were  to  be  abolished,  should  be  placed  in  a  fund  as  they 
should  arise  by  the  death  of  the  annuitants,  to  create  a 
provision  for  the  royal  family.  This  was  the  error  of  the 
noble  lord :  he  had  mistaken  tins  provision  for  all  the 
savings  of  the  plan  :  unless  indeed  he  imagined  that  to 
place  money  in  the  sinking  f*ind  subject  to  the  disposal  of 


SPEAKER.  1S9 

Parliament,  was  net  to  apply  it  to  the  public  service.  He 
might  consider  the  blind  profusion  of  the  minister  as  the 
public  service  ;  and  unless  it  had  been  left  to  him  to  be 
mismanaged  and  squandered  in  his  usual  way,  it  was  not 
applying  it,  in  his  opinion  to  the  public  service. — He  trust- 
ed the  house  would  excuse  him  for  having  wantoned  with 
their  patience  on  this  point  :  and  he,  for  his  own  part, 
should  think  his  time  and  labor  very  well  repaid,  if  there- 
by he  hc;d  been  fortunate  enough  to  gain  over  so  power- 
ful an  assisf.uit  and  friend  as  the  noble  lord,  to  the  princi- 
ple of  the  bill.  It  had  been  said  by  an  honorable  gentle- 
man, who  spoke  early  in  the  debate,  that  the  bill  connect- 
ed two  objects  that  ought  to  have  been  kept  separate. 
His  honorable  friend  [Mr.  John  Townshend]  near  him 
had  shewn,  that  these  objects  ought 'to  go  hand  in  hand 
together,  and  i^ad  very  properly  contend;^d  that  this  was 
the  fit  moment  for  introducing  reform  and  economy.  He 
should  add,  that  the  bill  had  a  third  object,  much  more 
important  than  either  of  these,  and  that  was  the  reduction 
of  the  influence  of  the  crown  :  that  influence  which  the 
last  Parliament,  by  an  express  resolution,  had  declared  to 
be  increasing,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  diminished:  an  in- 
fluence which  was  more  to  be  dreaded,  because  more  se- 
cret in  its  attacks,  and  more  concealed  in  its  operations, 
than  the  power  of  |;rerog:itivc.  All  these  objects  were 
not  only  cojnpatible  v.i;h  each  other,  but  they  had  a  mu- 
tual connection,  and  ought  not  to  be  divided  in  a  mea- 
sure of  reformation.  In  all  the  arguments  of  the  noble 
lord  who  spoke  last,  on  the  subject  oi^  the  resolutions  of 
the  6di  of  April,  he  obstrved  the  nobie  lord's  objections 
were  directed  solely  to  the  second  of  these  resolutions  ; 
he  took  It  lor  granted  therefore,  that  the  noble  lord  ad- 
mitttd  the  first.  That  resolution  pledged  the  house  to  do 
something  efl'ectual  in  compliance  with  the  petitions  of  the 
people.  Why  then  should  the  house  refuse  to  adopt  the 
present  bill,  the  operation  of  which  in  diminishing  the  in- 
fluence of  the  crown,  rendered  it  in  his  opinion  much 
more  valuable  than  the  mere  consideration  of  the  saving 
it  would  effect?  But  it  had  been  said,  that  the  saving  was 
immaterial ;  it  was  a  matter  of  trifling  consideration,  when 
measured  by  the  necessities  or  expenses  at  the  time.  It 
proposed  to  bring  no  more  than  200,000/.  a  year  into  the 


140  AMERICAN 

public  coffers  ;  and  that  sum  was  insignificant  in  the  pub- 
lic account,  when  compared  with  the  millions  which  we 
spend.  This  was  surely  the  most  singular  and  unaccount- 
able species  of  reasoning  that  was  ever  attempted  in  any- 
assembly.  The  calamities  of  the  crisis  were  too  great  to 
be  benefited  by  economy.  Our  expenses  were  so  enor- 
mous, that  it  was  ridiculous  to  attend  to  little  matters  of 
account.  We  have  sptnt  so  many  millions,  that  thousands 
are  beneath  our  consideration.  We  were  obliged  to  spend 
so  much  that  it  was  foolish  to  think  of  saving  any.  This 
was  the  language  of  the  day,  and  it  was  by  such  reason- 
ing that  the  principle  of  the  bill  had  been  disputed.  Much 
argument  had  been  brought  to  prove  the  impropriety  and 
the  injustice  of  resuming  a  parliamentary  grant ;  and  it 
had  been  even  said,"  that  they  had  not  a  right  to  do  so.  It 
would  be  needless  to  attempt  an  answer  to  such  a  doctrine. 
It  contained  its  refutation  in  its  weakness.  But  it  ought 
to  be  remembered,  that  the  civil  list  revenue  was  granted 
bv  Parliament  to  his  Majesty  for  other  purposes  than  those 
of  personal  gratification.  It  was  granttd  to  support  the 
power  and  the  interests  of  the  empire,  to  maintain  its 
grandeur,  to  pay  the  judges  and  the  foreign  ministers,  to 
maintain  justice  and  support  respect  ;  to  pay  the  great 
officers  that  were  necessary  to  the  lustre  of  the  crown  ; 
and  it  was  proportioned  to  die  dignity  and  opulence  ot  the 
people.  It  would  be  an  ungracious  task  to  investigate 
the  great  difference  that  there  was  between  the  wealth  of 
the  empire  when  that  revenue  was  granted,  and  the 
wealth  at  the  present  time.  It  would  serve  however  to 
shew,  that  the  sum  of  revenue,  which  was  necessasy  to 
the  support  of  the  common  dignity  of  the  crown  and 
people  at  that  time,  ought  now  to  be  abated,  as  the  ne- 
cessities had  increased.  The  people  who  grunted  that  re- 
venue under  the  circumstances  of  the  occasion,  were  jus- 
tified in  resuming  a  part  of  it,  under  the  pressing  demand 
of  an  altered  situation.  They  clearly  felt  their  right ; 
but  they  exercised  it  with  pain  and  regret.  They  ap- 
proached the  throne  with  bleeding  hearts,  afflicted  at  the 
necessity  of  applying  for  retrenchment  of  the  royal  gra- 
tifications ;  but  the  request  was  at  once  loyal  and  sub- 
missive. It  was  justified  by  policy,  and  his  Majesty's 
compliance  with  the  request  was  inculcated  by  prudence^ 


SPEAKER.  141 

as  well  as  by  affection.  He  confessed,  that,  when  he  con- 
sidered the  obligations  of  the  house,  he  could  not  cherish 
the  idea  that  they  would  dispute  the  principle  of  the  bill 
before  them.  He  could  not  believe  it  possible  that  the 
principle  of  economy  would  be  condemned,  or  the  means 
of  accomplishing  it  abandoned.  For  liis  own  part,  he 
admired  the  plan  proposed.  He  felt  himself,  as  a  citizen 
of  this  country  and  a  member  of  that  house,  highly  in- 
debted to  the  honorable  author  of  it  ;  and  as  he  consid- 
ered it  as  essential  to  the  being  and  the  independence  of 
his  country,  he  would  give  it  the  most  determined  support. 


Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Mr.  Fox,  12th  June,  1781,  on 
the  receipt  of  the  ?ietvs  in  England  of  the  Battle  of 
Guildford, 

"  I  proceed  next  to  the  battle  of  Guildford,  where 
the  Gazette  asserts,  we  had  obtained  a  signal  victory. 
This  tt:rm  I  doubt  not,  was  used  by  lord  Cornwallis 
in  a  very  proper  sense  ;  for  he  could  only  attend  to  the 
disproportion  betw.cn  the  two  armies  ;  in  which  point  of 
view,  no  doubt,  that  a  victory  should  be  gained  on  our 
side  was  very  astonishing,  and  highly  honorable  to  the 
troops  ;  but  if  the  consequences  of  the  action  were  to  be 
regarded,  then  he  must  understand  the  word  signal  in  a 
very  different  sense  ;  and  allow  the  victory  to  have  been 
sig7ialised,  by  drawing  after  it  the  same  identical  effects 
that  might  have  been  expected  from  a  defeiir.  Flad  our 
army  been  vanquished,  what  course  could  ihey  have  taken? 
Certainly  they  would  have  abandoned  the  lit-ld  of  action^ 
and  flown  for  refuge  to  the  sea-side  :  now  these  are  pre- 
cisely the  measurt-s  we  were  obliged  to  adopt  after  the 
action  at  Guildford,  the  victorious  army  leaving  the  field, 
abandoning  the  future  object  of  its  expedition,  and  retir- 
ing to  the  fleet.  Another  term  used  by  lord  Cornwallis 
I  must  also  take  notice  of;  he  called  his  army  a  little  one  ; 
and  well  indeed  might  lie  give  it  that  appellation,  since  his 
whole  force  did  not  amount  at  the  utmost  to  three  thousand 
men.  I  take  that  number  merely  to  avoid  a  contradiction 
that  miglu*  divert  the  current  of  debate  into  an  improper 
channel  ,•  for  I  am  credibly  informed  the  army  did  not  a- 


142  AMERICAN 

mount  to  one  half  the  nunnber ;  but  taking  it  at  three  thou= 
sand,  then  on  what  principle  couid  ministers  even  justify 
confining  the  operations  of  this  active  and  spirited  general 
by  so  scanty  a  force?  Little  indeed  the  army  was,  compared 
to  the  enemy  it  combated,  but  still  less  if  compared  to  the 
army  estimates  voted  this  session  ;  for  it  appeared  by 
them,  that  no  less  than  eighty-three  thousand  men  were 
employed  in  America,  including  a  number  in  the  West 
Indies  ;  so  that,  in  order  to  bring  three  thousand  men  into 
the  field,  the  public  were  to  pay  for  and  provide  eighty- 
thousand.  I  do  not  mean  absolutely  to  sa)^,  that  so  many 
were  actually  in  the  service,  perhaps  not  a  tenth  part  of 
them  could  be  produced ;  but  the  account  of  them  was 
to  be  seen  on  the  table  ;  and  what  language  coul<l  properly 
describe  the  fraudulent  conduct  of  ministers  in  imposing 
so  grievous  a  burden  on  the  people  without  necessity  ? 
I  will  take,  however,  if  they  please  the  other  alterna- 
tive, I  will  suppose  every  man  charged  in  the  estimates  to 
be  really  employed,  and  that  it  was  necessary  to  keep 
eighty  thousand  on  the  defensive,  that  three  thousand 
might  be  brought  into  the  field  ;  need  there  any  thing  else 
be  urged  to  prove  the  ruinous  tendency  of  the  American 
war  ?  For  lord  Cornwallis  had  stated  as  his  opinion, 
that  defensive  measures  would  be  certain  ruin  to  our  af- 
fairs ;  and  yet  we  could  not  act  offensively  without  keep- 
ing about  a  proportion  of  twenty-five  to  one  in  garrison ; 
nor  did  this  computation  go  far  enough,  as,  besides  the 
eighty-three  thousand,  our  friends  in  America  were  to  be 
reckoned  nine-tenths  of  the  whole  j  instead  of  which, 
however,  I  am  inclined  to  think  a  great  part  of  the  former 
number  were  necessarily  employed  to  watch  them,  instead 
of  their  being  anywise  serviceable  to  our  cause.  From 
this  I  deduce  the  aiisurdity  of  attempting  to  contend  with 
^France  in  America  :  we  had  conquered  that  power  in 
Germany  last  war,  as  it  had  been  said  :  for  my  part  I  ra- 
ther entertain  a  different  opinion,  believing  that  both  pow- 
ers found  that  conflict  so  expensive,  that  they  retired  from 
it  mutually  esftiausted,  and  saw  it  answered  to  them  the 
end  of  a  war  nearer  home,  by  sufficiently  weakening  each 
other  ;  but  would  that  equality  of  expense  exist  in  the 
present  case  ?  Certainly  not ;  for  the  ministry  could  not 
deny,  that  if  we  had  a  hundred  thousand  men  in  America, 


SPEAKER.  143 

\ 

and  France  only  twenty-five  thousand,  she  could  bring 
more  troops  into  the  field  than  we  ;  but  besides  this,  allow- 
ing we  each  brought  the  same  number,  our  enemy  would 
not  incur  one  fifth  part  of  our  expenses. 

"  Though  lord  Cornwallis  had  done  every  thing  he 
proposed  by  penetrating  into  North  Carolina,  though  he 
had  been  fortunate  enough  to  come  up  with  General 
Green,  engaged,  and  defeated  him,  he  had  found  no  one 
good  consequence  of  his  success,  not  being  joined  by  any 
body  of  Americans  as  he  expected,  nor  evtn  retaining  the 
ground  on  which  he  had  conquered.  As  therefore  no  un- 
foreseen obstacles  had  presented  themselves,  and  no  ill 
conduct  had  attended  the  execution  of  the  plan,  it  was  un- 
deniable, that  the  project  was  a  vain  one,  similar  to  all  the 
other  enterprises  we  had  formed  during  the  course  of  the 
war  ;  for  inimical  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  were 
always  found,  and  defended  as  they  were  by  natural  bar- 
riers, extensive  conquests  must  ever  be  impracticable,  and 
no  abilities  of  the  general  or  valor  of  the  troops  could  avail 
to  any  substantial  success.  This  was  experienced  by  ge- 
neral BuRGOYNE  at  Bennington  ;  by  general  Howe  at 
Long  Island;  by  lord  Cornwallis  at  Guildford;  and  so 
it  ever  must  be  found  while  the  constitution  of  things  in 
America  remained  the  same.  Ministers  had  already  tried 
the  fortune  of  war  in  nearly  all  the  thirteen  provinces : 
they  began  with  Massachusett's  Bay,  which  was  in  the 
first  commencement  of  the  war  supposed  the  only  hostile 
part  of  the  continent.  An  insurrection  in  the  province  of 
JVIassachusett's  Bay  was  the  general  phrase,  and  formed 
the  preamble  in  every  act  of  parliament  for  coercing  Ame- 
rica ;  of  course,  therefore,  to  suppress  that  insurrection 
was  the  only  object  of  the  war,  and  Boston  was  then  taken 
possession  o^  as  the  only  military  operation  necessary;  but 
in  a  short  time  that  town  was  abandoned  again,  and  with 
so  much  avidity,  that  a  great  minister  of  state,  now  no 
more  [lord  Suffolk]  had  even  congratulated  parliament 
on  the  occasion.  We  then  possessed  ourselves  of  New 
York  finding  the  flame  of  rebellion  had  extended  farther 
southwards,  and  there  continued  till  this  hour,  though  it 
seemed  it  was  not  a  situation  for  offensive  measures.  The 
next  enterprise  was  levelled  at  the  middle  colonies,  and 
Philadelphia  taken  ;  which  success  was  preceded  by  a  very 


144  AMERICAN 

important  victory;  yet  that  place  was  abandoned  also 
much  to  our  satisfaction,  and  the  retreat  from  it  had  eter- 
nised the  name  of  Clinton.  After  this,  we  discovered 
all  at  once,  that  the  Southern  Colonies  were  most  vulne-  > 
rable  and  proper  for  an  attack.  A  noble  lord  [lord  West- 
cote]  proclaimed  their  inhabitants  to  be  effeminate  and 
enervated  by  the  heat  of  the  sun :  his  lordship  being  a 
scholar  reasoned  on  the  topic  very  scientifically,  and  his 
ideas  were  at  once  adopted :  Charleston  in  consequence 
was  taken  ;  and  but  for  extraordinary  exertions  of  bravery, 
would  have  turned  out  a  conquest  more  injurious  to  our 
cause  than  any  of  the  preceding.  In  short,  we  had  now 
attempted  every  province  but  Virginia  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, the  latter  of  which  I  am  sorry  to  find  could  not  be 
invaded  without  great  difficulty  ;  but  as  to  the  former  I 
1|.understand  it  is  to  be  the  next  object  of  enterj:rise  :  now 
'  I  should  be  happy  to  learn  whether  after  the  thirteen  colo- 
nies had  been  invaded,  without  advancing  our  grand  ob- 
ject a  single  step,  ministers  would  at  last  consent  to  relin- 
quish this  most  destructive  war.  If  I  can  only  obtain  an 
assurance  of  that,  I  will  readily  consent  to  an  attempt  on 
Virginia,  and  think  I  make  a  good  bargain  for  my  consti- 
tuents. 


Extract  from  a  Speech  of  the  hie  Mr,  Pitt  in  the  same 
debate. 

"  Some  gentlemen  had  passed  the  highest  eulogiums  on 
the  American  war.  Its  justice  was  defended  in  the  most 
warm  and  fervent  manner  indeed.  A  noble  lord  in  the 
heat  of  his  zeal  had  called  it  a  holy  war.  For  my  part, 
though  the  honorable  gentleman  who  made  the  motion, 
and  some  other  gentlemen,  had  been  more  than  once  in  the 
course  of  the  debate  severely  reprehended  for  calling  it  a 
wicked  and  accursed  war,  I  am  persuaded,  and  will  affirm, 
that  it  was  a  most  cursed,  wicked,  barbarous,  cruel,  unna- 
tural, unjust,  and  diabolical  war.  It  was  conceived  in  in- 
justice :  it  was  nurtured  and  brought  forth  in  folly :  its 
footsteps  were  marked  with  blood,  slaughter,  persecution, 
and  devastation:  in  truth,  every  thing  which  went  to  con- 
stitute moral  depravity  and  human  turpitude,  was  to  be 


SPEAKER.  us 

found  in  it.  It  was  pregnant  with  misery  of  every  kind. 
The  mischiefs,  however,  recoiled  on  the  unhappy  people 
of  ihis  country  who  were  made  the  instruments,  by  vvhiuh 
the  wicked  purposes  of  its  authors  were  effectecL^  The 
nation  was  drained  of  its  best  blood  and  of  its  vital  re- 
sources of  men  and  money.  The  expense  of  it  was  en- 
ormous, much  beyond  any  former  experience  ;  and  yet, 
what  had  the  British  nation  received  in  return  ?  Nothing 

but  a  series  of  im  fFective  victories,  or  severe  defeats 

victories  celebrated  only  by  a  temporary  triumph  over  our 
brethren,  whom  we  would  trample  down  and  destroy  ; 
%vhich  filled  the  land  with  mourning  for  the  loss  of  dear 
and  valuable  relations,  slain  in  the  impious  cause  of  en- 
forcing unconditional  submission;  or  with  narrati  es  of 
the  glorious  exertions  of  men,  struggling  in  the  holv  cause 
of  liberty,  though  struggling  under  all  the  difficulties  and 
disadvantages  which  in  general  are  deemed  ihc  necessary 
concomitants  of  victory  and  success.  Where  was  the 
Englishman,  on  reading  the  narratives  of  those  bloody 
and  well-fought  contests,  who  could  refrain  from  lament- 
ing the  loss  of  so  much  British  blood,  spilt  in  such  a  cause  ? 
or  from  weeping  on  whatever  side  victorv  might  be  de- 
clared ?  Add  to  this  melancholy  consideration,  that  on 
which  ever  side  we  looked,  we  could  perceive  nothing  but 
nur  natural  and  powerful  enemies,  or  luke-warm  and  faith- 
less friends,  rejoicing  in  our  calamities,  or  meditating  our 
•iltimate  downfall." 


Extract  fr 0771  Mr,  Fox's  Speech  in  Kovember  1781,  mmc- 
duitely  after  the  news  had  arrived  of  the  surrender  of 
Lord  Connvallis. 

"  I  had  expected,  and  I  know  it  has  been  expected  by 
many  others,  to  hear  on  this  occasion  his  Majesty  declare 
from  the  throne,  that  he  had  been  deceived  and  imposed 
upon  by  misinformation  and  misrepresentation  ,•  that  in 
consequence  of  his  delusion,  the  parhament  had  been  de- 
luded ;  but  that  now  the  deception  was  at  an  end  ;  and 
requesting  of  his  parliamtint  to  devise  the  most  speedy  and 
efficacious  means  of  putting  an  end  to  the  public  calami- 
ties ;  instead^of  which  they  had  heard  a  speech  breathing 


146  AMERICAN 

little  else  than  vengeance,  misery,  and  blood.  Those  ivho 
ivere  ignorant  of  the  personal  character  of  the  Sovereign^ 
and  vho  imagined  this  speech  to  originate  with  him, 
might  be  led  to  suppose  that  he  was  an  unfeeling  despot, 
rejoicing  in  the  horrid  sacrifice  of  the  hberty  and  lives  of 
his  subjects,  who,  when  all  hope  of  victory  was  vanished, 
still  thirsted  for  revenge.  The  ministers,  who  advised  this 
speech,  are  a  curse  to  the  country,  over  the  affairs  of  which 
thty  have  too  long  been  suffered  to  preside.  From  that 
unrivalled  pre-eminence  which  we  so  lately  possessed,  they 
have  made  us  the  object  of  ridicule  and  scorn  to  the  sur- 
rounding nations.  The  noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribband  has 
indeed  thought  fit  to  ascribe  the  American  war  and  all  its 
attendant  calamities  to  the  speeches  of  Opposition.  Oh  ! 
wretched  and  incapable  ministry,  whose  measures  are 
framed  with  so  little  foresight,  and  executed  with  so  little 
firmness,  that  because  a  rash  and  intemperate  invective  is 
uttered  against  them  in  the  House  of  Commons,  they  shall 
insiantly  crumble  in  pieces,  and  bring  down  ruin  upon  the 
country  !  Miserable  statesman !  to  allow  for  no  contin- 
gencies of  fortune,  no  ebullition  of  passion,  no  collision 
of  sentiment !  Could  he  expect  the  concurrence  of  every 
individual  in  that  House  ?  and  was  he  so  weak  or  wicked, 
as  to  contrive  plans  of  government  of  such  a  texture,  that 
the  intervention  of  circumstances,  obvious  and  unavoid- 
able, would  occasion  their  total  failure,  and  hazard  the  ex- 
istence of  the  empire  ?  Ministers  must  expect  to  hear  of 
the  calamities  in  which  they  had  involved  the  empire,  again 
and  again — not  merely  in  that  House,  but  at  the  tribunal 
of  justice  ;  for,  the  time  will  surely  come,  when  an  op- 
|>ressf  d  and  irritated  people  will  firmly  call  for  signal  pun- 
ishment on  those  whose  counsels  have  brought  the  nation 
so  near  to  the  brink  of  destruction.  An  indignant  nation 
will  surely  in  the  end  compel  them  to  make  somt-  faint  a- 
tonement  for  the  magnitude  of  their  offences 'on  a  public 

fSCAFFOLD. 


3Irl  Burkcy  on  the  right  to  tax  America^  November^  1781. 

"  Oh  !  inestimable  right.  Oh  !  wonderful,  transcend  ant 
right,  the  assertion  of  which  has  cost  this  countrj^hirteen 


SPEAKER.  U7 

provinces,  six  islands,  100,OvOO  lives,  and  seventy  millions 
of  money  !  Oh  invaluable  right !  for  the  sake  of  which  we 
have  sacrificed  our  rank  among  nations,  out  importance 
abroad,  and  our  happiness  at  home  !   Oh  right !  more  dear 
to  us  than  our  existence,  which  has   already  cost  us  so 
much,  and  which  seems  likely  to  cost  us  our  all.     Infa- 
tuated man!"   cried  Mr.  Burke,  fixing  his  eyes  on  the 
minister,  *'  miserable  and  undone  country!   not  to  know 
that  the  claim  of  right  without  the  power  of  enforcing  it, 
is  nugatory  and  idle.  We  had  a  right  to  tax  America,  the 
noble  lord  tells  us  ;  therefore  we  ought  to  tax  America. 
This  is  the  profound   loj:^ic  which   comprises   the  whole 
chain  of  his  reasoning.     Not  inferior  to  this  was  the  wis- 
dom of  him  who  resolved  to  shear  the  wolf.   What !  shear 
a  wolf!   Have  you  considered  the  resistance,  the  difficul- 
ty, the  danger  of  the  attempt  ?  No,  says  the  madman,  I 
have  considered  nothing  but  the  right.      Man  has  a  right 
of  dominion  over  the  beasts  of  the  forest  ;  and  therefore  I 
will  shear  the  woif.     Hov/  v/onderful  that  a  nation  could 
be  thus  deluded.     But  the  noble  lord  dealt  in  cheats  and 
delusions.     They  were   the  daily  traflic  of  his  invention  ; 
and  he  would   continue   to   play  off   his  cheats   on  this 
House,  so  long  as  he  thought  them  necessary  to  his  pur- 
pose, and  so  long  as  he  had  money  enough  at  command 
to  bribe   gentlemen  to  pretend  that  they  belie^^ed  him. 
But  a  black  and  bitter  day  of  reckoning  would   surely 
come  ;  and  whenever  that  day  came,  he  trusted  he  should 
be  able,  by  a  parliamentary  impeachment,  to  bring 
upon  the  heads  of  the  authors  of  our  calamities,  the  pun- 
ishment they  deserved." 


Speech  of  3Ir,  Fox,  on  Mr.  Pitt's  ^notion,  for  a  reform  in 
the  representation  of  the  people^  by  a  ^^radual  extinguish' 
ment^  by  purchase,  of  the  right  of  sending  members  to 
parliament^  possessed  by  sundry  Rotten  Boroughs, 

"  After  the  many  occasions,  on  which  I  have  before 
expressed  what  my  sentiments  are  on  the  subject  of  a_re- 
form  in  the  repr'sentation  of  the  people  in  Parliament,  I 
shall  n.ot  consider  myself  under  any  great  necessity  of  trou- 
bling the  house  ;  but  there  have  been  extraordinary  cir- 


148  AMERICAN 

cumstances  attending  the  introduction  of  the  present  ques- 
tion. That  I  bnve  always  bf-en  a  friend  to  the  principle 
of  the  bill  is  a  L.qk  which  does  not  require  to  be  now  re- 
peated. Whfcthrr  tht  means  taken  to  effect  that  principle 
are  such  as  are  most  unexceptionable,  must  remain  for 
future  discussion,  but  cannot  provoke  my  opposition  to 
the  motion.  There  remain  ample  opportunities  in  the 
future  stages  of  the  Bill  to  examine  and  correct  it ; — op- 
portunities which  in  themseivts  will  be  the  highest  acqui- 
sitiott. 

**  To  that  principle  which  by  a  diminution  of  the  mem- 
bers of  boroughs  tended  to  encrease  the  proportion  of  re- 
presentatives for  counties,  I  am  sincerely  and  cordially  a 
friend.  But  while  I  am  thus  explicit  on  the  subject  of 
my  approbation,  it  ir^  but  just  to  mention,  that  there  is 
another  point  to  which  I  totally  disagree.  With  all  re- 
spect Vt^hich  I  always  pay  to  the  house  of  commons,  I  can 
perceive  in  it  no  superlative  excellence,  no  just  superiority, 
which  can  justify  the  suspension  of  the  operation  of  this 
bill.  To  defer  for  a  period  of  years  any  system  of  reform, 
however  pnrtial  and  inadequate,  is  by  no  means  comply- 
inp.  with  the  dc dared  wishes  of  the  majority  of  the  elec- 
tors of  this  country,  whose  voice,  though  by  no  means  to 
be  acknowledged  as  that  to  which  the  house  of  commons 
must  conform,  when  they  are  directed  by  any  sudden  im- 
pulse as  the  opinions  of  a  moment,  should  always  be  obey- 
ed on  points  which  the  experience  and  consideration  of 
years  have  taught  them  finally  to  decide  on.  The  people, 
iiotwithstanciing  all  that  has  been  said,  have  no  peculiar 
obligations  to  this  Parliament  for  uncommon  instances  of 
that  propriety  of  conduct,  which  would  warrant  so  implicit 
a  reliance  in  it.  No  very  flattering  proofs  of  extraordi- 
nary attention  to  the  rights  of  the  people  have  been  given 
by  his  jMajesty's  present  ministers,  in  their  support  of 
that  excellent  measure  the  Westminster  scrutiny  :  and  no 
very  splendid  testimony  of  their  prudence  in  financial 
concerns  could  be  drawn  from  the  CGrnmiitation  tax.  This 
is  a  proceeding,  the  hardship  of  which  they  have  already 
felt;  and  there  are  some  others  now  in  agitation,  which 
are  not  likely  to  turn  out  much  more  fa\'XDrable.  These 
only  are  the  reasons  the  people  can  have  for  a  reliance  in 
their  present  Parliamento     I  do  not  however  mean  to  say 


SPEAKER,  149 

any  thing  which  can  be  construed  as  invective  against 
them.  -  I  have  before  been  accused  of  insulting  them. 
I  do  not  know  that  I  did  so ;  but  if  heat  should  have 
led  me  at  any  time  to  say  any  thing  which  could  have 
that  appearance,  I  am  exceedingly  sorry  for  it.  There 
was  nothing  in  any  of  these  circumstances  which  could 
impress  them  on  my  memory  ;  but  I  have  observed,  that 
nothing  I  have  ever  said  in  my  warmest  moments  has 
ever  drawn  forth  so  much  passion  and  ill  temper  on  the 
other  side  of  the  house,  as  when  1  have  attempted  to 
praise  them.  The  Right  Honorable  Gentleman  has  in 
this  instance  receded  from  those  opinions  which  on  tv\o 
former  occasions  he  seemed  to  maintain  ;  and  the  alt-  ra- 
tion which  he  has  now  made  for  the  purpose  of  a  specific 
plan  is  infinitely  for  the  wofse.  It  is  in  vain  that  he  en- 
deavours to  qualify  the  objections  which  the  idea  of  inno- 
vation raises  in  the  minds  of  some,  by  diminishing  the 
extent  and  influence  of  reformation.  From  the  earliest 
periods  of  our  government,  that  principle  of  innovation, 
but  which  should  more  properly  be  called  amendment,  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  practice  of  the  constitution, 
in  every  species  of  government,  for  I  will  put  absolute 
monarchy  out  of  the  question,  as  one  which  ought  never 
lo  take  place  in  any  country,  democracy  and  aristocracy 
are  always  in  a  state  of  graslual  improvement,  v/hen  expe- 
rience comes  to  the  aid  of  theory,  and  speculation. 

'*•  In  all  these  the  voice  of  the  people,  when  deliberately 
and  generally  collected,  is  invariably  sure  to  succeed. 
There  nre  moments  ot  periodical  impulse  and  delusion, 
in  which  they  should  not  be  gratified;  but  when  the  views 
of  a* people  have  been  formed  and  determined  on  the  at- 
tainment of  any  object,  they  must  ultimately  succeed.  Oa 
this  subject  the  people  of  this  country  liave  petitioned 
from  time  to  time,  and  their  applications  have  been  made 
to  their  Parliament.  In  every  reason  therefore  triey  should 
be  gratified,  lest  they  may  be  inclined  to  sue  for  redress 
in  another  quarter,  w^here  their  application  will  have  every 
probability  of  success,  from  the  experience  of  last  year. 
Failing  in  their  representatives,  they  may  have  recourse 
to  their  prerogative.  It  has  been  urged,  that  now  whilst 
this  business  is  in  agitation,  the  people  of  Birminghawi 
and  Manchester  have  not  petitioned  to  be  jfnresentci^* 

0  2 


150  AMERICAN 

This  is  an  argument  which  at  this  time  of  all  others  can 
have  but  Uttle  weight ;  for  while  they  were  alarmed  for 
their  trade  and  their  subsistence,  it  is  no  time  for  them  to 
set  about  making  improvements  in  that  constitution,  in 
ivhich  they  are  not  certain  how  long  they  may  have  any 
share.     On  the  eve  of  emigration,  they  are  to  look  for 
this  in  another  country,  to  which  their  property  and  busi- 
ness are  soon  to  be  transferred.     The  different  parts  of 
this  plan  would  certainly  in  a  committee  be  submitted  to 
modification  and  amendments  :  but  as  it  now  stands  ad- 
mitting only  the  first  principle,  every  other  part  and  the 
means  taken  jto  attain  the  principle  are  highly  objectiona- 
ble. I  shall  not  hesitate  to  declare,  that  I  will  never  agree 
to  admit  the  purchasing  from  a  majority  of  the  electors 
the  property  of  the  whole.     In  this  I  see  so  much  injus- 
tice, and  30   much  repugnance  to  the  true  spirit  of  our 
constitution,  that  I  cannot  entertain  the  idea  one  moment. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  the  property  of  a  borough  is  in 
one  man,  there  is  no  chance  of  his  disposing  of  it  on  the 
terms  this  day  mentioned  ;  for  when  a  particular  sum  is 
laid  down  for  a  certam  purchase,  and  interest  suffered  to 
accumulate  on  that  sum,  the  man  must  be  a  fool  who  could 
be  in  haste  to  get  the  possession  of  it.     There  is  some- 
thing injurious  in  holding  out  pecuniary  temptations  to  an 
Englishman  to  relinquish  his  franchise  on  the  one  hand, 
snd  a  political  principle  which  equally  forbids  it  on  ano- 
ther.   I  am  uniformly  of  an  opinion,  which,  though  not  a 
popular  one,  I  am  ready  to  aver,  that  the  right  of  govern- 
ing is  not  a  property,  but  a  trust ;  and   that  whatever  is 
giv.-n  for  constitutional  purposes,  should  be  resumed  yhen 
those  purposes  shall  no  longer  be  carried  into  effect.  There 
are  instances  of  gentlemen  offering  to  sacrifice  the  interest 
ihey   may   have  in  boroughs  to  the  public  good.      It  is 
strange  that  none  of  them  now  come  forward,  when  the 
occasion  has  presented  itself.     I  am  averse  to  the  idea  of 
eonfinihg  parliairtntary  situations  to  men  of  large  fortunes, 
or  those  who  have  distinguished  themselves  in  public  pro- 
fessions.    Should  this  be  the  case,  there  is  scarcely  any 
man  so  little  acquainted  with  the  histoiy  of  Parliament, 
as  not  to  know  that  the  house  would  lose  half  its  force.    It 
33  not  from  men  of  large  and  easy  fortunes  that  attention, 
vigilance,  energy,  and  enterprise  are  to  be  expected*  Hii= 


SPEAKER.  I5i 

man  nature  is  too  fond  of  gratification  not  to  be  some- 
^vhat  attentive  to  it,  when  the  means  are  at  hand  ;  and  the 
best  and  most  meritorious  public  services  have  always  been 
performed  by  persons  in  circumstances  removed  froTi 
opulence.  The  Right  Honorable  Gentleman  need  not  be 
ashamed  to  take  some  of  those  regulations  formed  in  the 
time  of  the  protector,  Oliver  Crot-iwell  ;  ibr  though  a 
character  too  odious  ever  to  be  the  object  of  praise  or  imi- 
tation, his  institutions,  confirmed  afterwards  by  his  suc- 
cessor, Charles  il.,  bear  strong  marks  of  genius  and  abi- 
lity ;  for  his  political  disposition  was  as  good  as  that  of  his 
successor,  and  his  genius  infinitely  more  powerful.  I  shall 
conclude  with  earnestly  intreating  all  sides  of  the  house  to 
concur  in  the  question  now  before  them." 


Extract  from  3Ir,  TloocVs  Speech  irz  trie  British  House  cf 
Commons  in  March^  1790. 

*'  This  secret  of  inadequate  representation  was  told  the 
people  in  thunder  in  the  American  war  ;  which  began  with 
virtual  representation,  and  ended  in  dismemberment.  To 
the  inadequacy  of  representation,  I  charge  that  war. 

"  Profuse  councils,  attendant  on  unconstitutional  majori- 
ties, had  left  ijpon  you  a  debt,  which  induced  the  minister 
to  look  to  America  for  taxes.  There  the  war  began  •, 
the  instinctive  selfishness  of  mankind  made  the  people  and 
Parliament  wish  that  others  should  be  taxed  rather  than 
themselves.  Ai  first,  and  until  America  resisted,  I  agree 
that  this  wish  was  common  to  the  Parliament  and  people  ; 
but  when  Airierica  resisted,  and  the  measure  came  to  de- 
liberate judgment,  the  people  were  the  first  to  recover 
their  senses  ;  whilst  the  minister  with  his  majoritv,  went 
on  to  ruin.  I  siiy,  that  the  inadequacy  of  representation, 
as  it  was  the  cause,  so  it  v/ys  the  only  argument  that  was 
attempted  in  justification  of  that  war.  When  the  Ame- 
rican exclaimed,  thai  he  was  not  represented  in  the 
British  house  of  Commons,  becausr  he  was  not  an  elector, 
he  was  told,  that  a  very  small  part  of  the  people  of  Eng- 
land were  electors  ;  and  that  therefore  he  was  in  the  same 
state  in  which  an  infinite  majorit)  of  the  people  of  Eng- 
land were  placed.     As  they  could  not  call  this  actual. 


152  AMERICAN 

t'ncy  invented  a  new  name  for  it,  and  called  it  virtual  re- 
presentation:  and  gravely  concluded  that  America  was  re- 
presented. The  argument  no  doubt  was  fallacious  :  it  was 
perfectly  sufficient,  however,  to  impose  on  multitudes  in  a 
nation,  wishmg  that  others  should  be  taxed  rather  than 
themselves ;  and  who  were  in  the  habit  of  thinking  that  the 
Americans  being  an  inferior  species  of  beings,  ought 
to  be  contented  with  their  situation,  though  they  did  not 
partake  at  ail  in  the  elective  capacity.  The  influence  of  cor- 
ruption within  doors,  and  of  this  fraud  of  argument  with- 
out, continued  the  American  war. 

*'  It  terminated  in  a  separation,  as  it  began  in  this  empty 
vision  of  a  virtual  representation  ;  and  in  its  passage  from 
one  of  these  points  to  the  other,  it  swe^t  away  part  of  the 
glory,  and  more  of  the  territory  of  Great  Britain,  with  the 
loss  of  forty  thousand  lives,  and  one  hundred  millions  of 
treasure.  Virtual  Parliaments,  and  an  inadequate  repre- 
sentation, have  cost  you  enough  abroad  already  ;  take  care 
they  do  not  cost  you  more  at  home,  by  costing  you  your 


Extracts  from  Mr.  Fox'^s  Speech  on  Mr,  Greifs  motion  for 
a  Parliamentary  Rform^  May  26t/i  1797 » 

"  Sir, 

"  Much  and  often  as  this  question  has  been  discussed 
both  within  these  vv'aHs,  and  without,  and  late  as  the  hour 
is,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  make  sonic  observations,  and  to 
deliver  my  opinion  on  a  measure  of  high  importance  at  all 
tim.cs,  but  which  at  the  present  period  is  become  infinitely 
more  interesting  than  ever.  I  fear,  however,  that  my 
conviction  on  this  subject  is  not  common  to  the  house. 
1  fear,  that  we  are  not  likely  to  be  agreed  as  to  the  impor- 
tance of  the  rreasure,  nor  as  to  the  necessity  ;  since,  by  the, 
mann.  r  in  which  it  has  been  discussed  this  night,  I  foresee 
that,  so  tar  from  being  unanimous  on  the  proposition,  we 
shall  not  be  agree  d  as  to  the  situation  and  circumstances 
of  the  country  itself,  much  less  as  to  the  nature  of  the  mea- 
sures, which,  in  my  mind,  that  situation,  and  those  circum- 
stanc  s  so  imperiously  demand. 

"  For  myself,  and  according  to  my  vieV  of  our  circum* 


SPEAKER.  153 

stnnces,  all  that  part  of  the  argument  against  reform,  which 
relates  to  the  danger  of  innovation,  is  strongly  misplaced 
by  those  who  think  with  me,  that,  so  far  from  procuring 
the  mere  chance  of  practical  benefits  by  a  reform,  it  is  only 
by  a  reform  that  we  can  have  a  chance  of  rescuing  our- 
selves from  a  state  of  extreme  peril  and  distress.  Such  is 
my  view  of  our  situation.  I  think  it  so  perilous,  so  immi- 
nent, that  though  I  do  not  feel  conscious  of  despair,  an  e- 
motion  ^vhich  the  heart  ought  not  to  admit,  yet  it  comes 
nearer  to  that  state  of  hazard,  when  the  sentiment  of  de- 
spair, rather  than  of  hope,  may  be  supposed  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  mind.  I  feel  myself  to  be  the  member  of 
a  community  in  which  the  boldest  man,  without  any  impu- 
tation of  cowardice,  may  dread  that  we  are  not  merely- 
approaching  to  a  state  of  mere  peril,  but  of  absolute  dis- 
solution ;  and  with  this  conviction,  impressed  indelibly  on 
my  heart,  gentlemen  will  not  believe  that  I  disregard  all 
the  general  arguments  that  have  been  used  Rgainst  the 
motion  on  the  score  of  innovation,  from  any  disrespect 
to  the  honorable  n^em,bers  who  have  urged  them,  or  to  the 
ingenuity  with  which  they  have  been  pressed,  but  because 
I  am  firmly  persuaded  that  th;-y  are  totally  inapplicable 
to  the  circumstances  under  which  we  come  to  the  discus- 
sion. With  the  ideas  that  I  entertain,  I  cannot  listen  for 
a  mom',  nt  to  suggestions  that  are  applicable  only  to  other 
situations  and  to  other  times  ;  for  unless  we  are  resolved, 
in  liClplcss  pusillanimity,  or  in  a  stupid  torpor,  to  succumb, 
and  to  wait  with  resignation  the  appv-oach  of  our  doom,  to 
lie  down  and  die,  we  must  take  bold  and  decisive  mea- 
sures for  our  deliverance.  We  must  not  be  deterred  by 
meaner  apprehensions.  We  must  coml)ine  all  our  strength, 
fortify  one  another  by  the  commutiion  of  our  courage  ; 
and  by  a  sensonable  exertion  of  national  wisdom,  patriot- 
ism, and  vigor,  take  measures  for  the  chance  of  salvation, 
and  encounter  with  unappalled  hearts  all  the  enemies  fo- 
reign and  internal,  all  the  dangers  and  calamities  of  every 
kind,  which  press  so  heaviiy  upon  us.  Such  is  my  view 
of  the  present  emergency  of  England  ;  and  under  this 
impression,  1  cannot  tor  a  moment  listen  to  the  argument 
of  danger  arising  from  innovation,  since  our  ruin  is  inevi- 
table, if  we  pursue  the  course  Vv'hich  h.is  brought  us  to  the 
brink  of  the  precipice. 


154  AMERICAN 

"  I  have  invariably  declared  myself  a  friend  to  par- 
liamentary reform  by  whomsoever  proposed  ;  and  though 
in  all  the  discussions  that  have  heretofore  taken  place, 
I  have  had  occasion  to  express  my  doubt  as  to  the  effica- 
cy of  the  particular  mode,  I  have  never  hesitated  to  say, 
that  the  principle  itself  was  beneficial ;  and  that,  though 
not  called  for  with  the  urgency,  which  some  folks,  and 
among  others  the  right  honorable  gentleman  declared  to 
exist,  I  const.mtly  was  of  opinion  that  it  ought  not  to 
be  discouraged.  Now,  however,  that  all  doubt  upon 
the  subject  s  removed  by  the  pressure  of  our  calami- 
ties, and  that  no  spark  of  hope  remains  for  the  country, 
and  the  dreadful  alternative  seems  to  be,  whether  we  shall 
sink  into  the  most  abject  thraldom  on  the  one  side,  or 
continue  in  the  same  course  until  we  are  driven  into  the 
horrors  of  anarchy  on  the  other,  I  can  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying,  that  the  plan  of  recurring  to  the  principle  of 
tneiiorntion- which  the  constitution  points  out,  is  become  a 
desideratum  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain.  Between  the 
aliernatives  of  baoe  and  degraded  slavery  on  the  one  side, 
or  of  tumultuous  though  probably  short  lived  anarchy  oii 
the  other,  thau;.;h  no  niao  would  hesitatt  to  make  his  choice, 
yet  if  there  be  a  course  obvious  and  practicable,  which, 
without  either  viohncr  or  innovation,  may  lead  us  back 
to  the  vigor  we  have  lost,  to  the  energy  that  has  been 
stifled,  to  the  dependence  that  has  been  undermined, 
and  yet  preserve  every  thing  in  its  place,  a  moment 
ought  not  to  be  lost  in  embracing  the  chance  which  this 
fortuniUe  provision  of  the  British  system  has  made  for 
British  safety. 

"  Every  thing  that  is  dear  and  urgent  to  the  minds  of 
Englishmen,  presses  upon  us  :  at  the  critical  moment  at 
which  I  now  address  you,  a  day,  an  hour  ought  not  to  e- 
lapse,  without  giving  to  ourselves  the  chance  of  this  reco- 
very. When  government  is  daily  presenting  itself  in  the 
shape  of  weakness  that  borders  on  dissolution — unequal  to 
all  the  functions  of  useful  strength,  and  formidable  only 
in  pernicious  corruption — weak  in  power,  but  strong  only 
in  influence  ;  am  I  to  be  told,  that  such  a  state  of  things 
can  go  on  with  safety  to  any  branch  of  the  constitution  ? 
If  men  think,  that  under  the  impression  of  such  a  system, 
we  can  go  on  without  a  material  recurrence  to  first  princi* 


SPEAKER.  155 

pies,  they  argue  in  direct  opposition  to  all  theory  and  all 
practice.  These  discontents  cannot  in  their  nature  subside 
under  detected  weakness  and  exposed  incapacity.  In  their 
progress  and  increase,  as  increase  they  must,  who  shall 
say  that  direction  can  be  given  to  the  torrent,  or  that  hav- 
ing broken  its  bounds  it  can  be  kept  from  overwhelming 
the  country  ?  Sir,  it  is  not  the  part  of  statesmen,  it  is  not 
the  part  of  rational  beings,  to  amuse  ourselves  with  such 
fallacious  dreams  :  we  must  not  sit  down  and  lament  over 
our  hapless  situation  ;  we  must  not  deUver  ourselves  up 
to  an  imbecile  despondency,  that  would  paralyse  us  at  the 
approach  of  danger;  but  by  a  seasonable,  alert  and  vigor- 
ous measure  of  wisdom,  meet  it  with  what  we  think  a  suf- 
ficient and  seasonable  remedy. — We  may  be  disappointed 
— we  may  fail  in  the  application,  for  no  man  can  be  cer- 
tain of  his  footing  on  ground  that  is  unexplored  ;  but  we 
shall  at  least  have  a  chance  for  success — we  shall  at  least 
do^hat  belongs  to  legislators,  and  to  rational  beings  on 
the  occasion  ;  and  I  have  confidence  that  our  efforts  would 
not  be  in  vain.  I  say  that  we  should  give  ourselves  a 
chance,  and  I  may  add  the  best  chance  for  deliverance  ; 
since  it  would  exhibit  to  the  country  a  proof  that  we  had 
conquered  the  first  great  difficulty  that  stood  in  the  way 
of  bettering  our  condition — we  had  conquc^red  ours-^lves. 
We  had  given  a  general  triumph  to  reason  over  prejudice  ; 
we  had  given  a  death-blow  to  those  miserable  distinctions 
of  JF/iig-  and  Tory,  under  which  the  warfare  had  been 
maintained  between  pride  and  privilege  ;  and  through  the 
contention  of  our  rival  jealousies,  the  genuine  rights  of 
the  many  had  been  gradually  undermined  and  frittered 
away.  I  say  that  this  would  be  giving  us  the  best  chance, 
be^cause,  seeing  every  thing  go  on  from  bad  to  worse — see- 
ing the  progress  of  the  most  scandalous  waste  countenan- 
ced by  the  most  criminal  confidence,  and  thut  the  effront- 
ery of  corruption  no  longer  requires  the  musk  of  conceal- 
ment— seeing  liberty  daily  infringed,  and  the  vital  springs 
of  the  nation  insufiicient  for  the  extravagance  of  a  dissi- 
pated government,  I  must  believe,  that,  unless  the  people 
are  mad  or  stupiu>  they  will  suspect  that  there  is  some- 
thing fundamentally  false  or  vicious  in  our  system,  and 
which  no  reform  would  be  equal  to  correct.  Then  to  pre- 
vent all  this,  and  to  try  if  we  can  effect  a  reform,  without 


156  AMERICAN 

touching  the  mahi  pillars  of  our  constitution — without 
changing  its  forms,  or  disturbing  the  harmoiiy  ot  its  parts 
— without  putting  any  thing  out  of  its  place,  or  affecting 
the  securities  which  we  justly  hold  to  be  so  sacred,  I  say, 
that  it  is  the  only  chance  which  we  have  for  retrieving  our 
misfortunes  by  the  road  of  quiet  and  tranquillity,  and  by 
which  national  strength  may  be  recovered  without  disturb- 
ing the  property  of  a  single  individual. 

*•'  An  honorable  baronet  spoke  of  the  instability  of  de- 
mocracies, and  says,  that  history  does  not  give  us  the  ex- 
ample of  one  that  has  lasted  eighty  years.  Sir,  I  am  not 
speaking  of  pure  democracies,  and  therefore  his  allusion 
does  not  apply  to  my  argument.  Eighty  years,  however, 
of  peace  and  repose  would  be  pretty  well  for  any  people 
to  enjoy,  and  would  be  no  bad  recommendation  of  a  pure 
democracy.  I  am  very  ready,  however,  to  acjree  with 
the  honorable  baronet,  that,  according  to  the  experience  of 
history,  the  ancient  democracies  of  the  world  were  vVcipus, 
and  objectionable  on  many  accounts  ;  their  instability, 
their  injustice,  and^many  other  vices  cannot  be  overlook- 
er^ ;  but  siu*ely  when  we  turn  to  the  ancient  democracies 
of  Greece,  when  we  see  them  in  all  the  splendor  of  arts 
and  of  arms,  when  we  see  how  they  aroused  and  invigo- 
rated genius,  and  to  what  an  elevation  they  carried  the 
powers  of  man,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  however  vicious 
on  the  score  of  ingratitude,  or  injustice,  they  were  at  least., 
the  pregnant  and  never-l'aiiing  source  of  national  strength; 
and,  that,  in  particular,  they  brought  forth  and  afforded 
this  strength  in  a  peculiar  manner  in  the  moment  of  diffi- 
culty, and  distress.  When  we  look  at  the  democracies  of 
the  ancient  world,  we  are  compelled  to  acknowledge  their  op- 
pressions to  their  dependencies,  their  horrible  acts  of  injus- 
tice and  of  ingratitude  to  their  own  citizens  ;  but  they  com- 
pel us  also  to  admiration  by  their  vigor,  their  constancy, 
their  spiiit,  and  their  exertioris  in  every  great  emergency 
in  which  the)  were  called  upon  to  act.  We  are  compelled 
to  o\\n,  that  it  gives  a  power  of  which  no  other  form  of 
government  is  capable.  Why  i  Jiecause  it  incorporates 
every  m.n  with  the  state — because  it  arouses  every  thing 
that  belongs  to  the  soul,  as  well  as  to  the  body  of  man— 
because  it  itiakLS  every  individual  creature  feel,  that  he  is 
fighting  for  himself,  and  not  for  another  j  that  it  is  his 


SPEAKER.  157 

own  cause,  his  own  safety,  his  own  concern,  his  own  dig- 
nity, on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  his  own  interest  on  the 
identical  soil  which  he  has  to  maintain ;  and  accordingly 
we  find  that  whatever  may  be  ascribed,  that  whatever 
may  be  objected  to  them  on  account  of  the  turbulency  of 
the  passions  which  they  engender,  their  short  duration, 
and  their  disgusting  vices,  they  have  exacted  from  the 
common  suffrage  of  mankind  the  palm  of  strength  and 
vigor.  Who  that  reads  the  history  of  the  Persian  war, 
what  boy  whose  heart  is  warmed  by  the  grand  and  sub- 
lime actions  which  the  democratic  spirit  produced,  does 
not  find  in  this  principle  the  key  to  all  the  wonders  which 
were  achieved  at  Thermopylae  and  elsewhere  f  He  sees 
that  the  principle  of  liberty  only  could  create  the  sublime 
and  irresistible  emotion  ;  and  it  is  in  vain  to  deny,  from 
the  striking  illustration  that  our  own  times  have  given, 
that  the  principle  is  eternal,  and  that  it  belongs  to  the 
heart  of  man.  Shall  we  then  refuse  to  take  the  benefit 
of  this  invigorating  principle  ?  Shall  we  refuse  to  take 
the  benefit  which  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  resolved 
that  it  should  confer  on  the  British  constitution  ?  With 
the  knowledge  that  it  can  be  reinfused  into  our  system 
without  violence,  without  disturbing  any  one  of  its  parts, 
are  we  become  so  inert,  so  terrified,  or  so  stupid,  as  to 
hesitate  for  one  hour  to  restore  ourselves  to  the  health 
which  it  would  be  sure  to  give  ? 

"  If  you  wish  for  power,  you  must  look  to  liberty.  If 
ever  there  was  a  moment  when  this  maxim  oughi  to  be 
dear  to  us,  it  is  the  present.  We  have  tried  all  other 
means :  we  have  had  recourse  to  every  stratagem,  that 

artifice,   that  influence,  that  cunning  could  suggest we 

have  addressed  ourselves  to  all  the  base  passions  of  the 
nation  :  we  have  addressed  ourselves  to  pride,  to  avarice 
to  fear  :  we  have  awakened  ail  the  interested  emotions  ;  we 
have  employed  every  thing  that  flattery,  every  thing  that 
address,  every  thing  that  privilege  could  efl'ect :  we  have 
tried  to  terrify  them  into  exertion  ;  and  all  has  been  une- 
qual to  our  emergency.  Let  us  try  them  by  the  only 
means  which  experience  demonstrates  to  be  invincible  : 
let  us  address  ourselves  to  their  love  :  let  us  identify  them 
with  ourselves  ;  let  us  make  it  their  own  cause,  as  well  as 
ours.     To  induce  them  to  come  forward  in  support  of  the 


158  AMERICAN 

state,  let  us  make  them  a  part  of  the  state,  and  this  they 
become  the  very  instant  you  give  them  a  house  of  com- 
mcns  that  is  the  faithful  organ  of  their  will :  then,  Sir, 
when  you  have  made  them  believe  and  feel  that  there  can 
be  hut  one  interest  in  the  country,  you  will  never  call  up- 
on them  in  vain  for  exertion. 

*'  There  has  been  at  different  times  9  great  deal  of  dis- 
pute about  virtual  representation.     Sir,  I  am  no  great  ad- 
vocate for  these  nice  subtiliiies  and  special  pleadings  on 
the  constitution  :  much  depends  upon  appearance  as  well 
as  reality.     I  know  well,  that  a  popular  body  of  five  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eight  gentlemen,  if  truly  independent  of 
the  crown,  would  be  a  strong  barrier  to  the  people  j  but 
the  house  of  commons  should  not  only  be,  but  appear  to 
be,  the  representative  of  the  people  :  the  system  should 
satisfy  the  prejudices  and  the  pride,  as  well  as  the  reason 
of  the  people  ;  and  you  can  never  expect  to  give  the  just 
impression  which  a  house  of  commons  ought  to  make  on 
the  people,  until  you  derive  it  unequivocally  from  them. 
It  is  asked,  why  gentlemen,  who  were  against  a  parlia- 
mentary reform  on  former  occasions,  should  vote  for  it 
now  ?  Ten  years  ago,  men  might  reasonably  object  to  any 
reform  of  the  system,  who  ought  now  in  my  opinion,  to 
be  governed  by  motives  that  are  irresistible  in  its  favor. 
They  might  look   back  with  something  like   satisfaction 
and  triumph  to  former  Parliaments,  and  console  them- 
selves with  the  reflection,  that,  though  in  moments  of  an 
ordinary  kind,  in  the   common  course  of  human  events, 
Parliament  might  abate   from    its  vigilance,  and  give  a 
greater  degree  of   confidence  than    strictly  conformable 
wiih  representative  duty  ;  yet  there  was  a  point  beyond 
which  no  artifice  of  power,  no   influence  of  corruption, 
could  carry  them  :  that  there  were  barriers  in  the  British 
constitution,  over  which   the    house  of   commons  never 
would  leap,  and  that  the  moment  of  danger  and   alarm 
would  be  the  sign<il  for  the  return  of  Parliament  to  its 
post.     Such  might  have  been  the  reasoning  of  gentlemen 
on  the  experience  of  former   Parliaments  ;  and  with  this 
rooted  trust  in  the  latent  (i/ficacy  of  Parliament,  they  might 
have  objecteei   to  any  attempt  that  should  give  scope  to 
views,  or  cherish  hop;  s  of  a  change  in  the  system  itself; 
but  what  will  the  said  gentlemen  say,  after  the  experience 


SPEAKER.  159 

of  the  last  and  the  present  Parliament?  What  depen- 
dence, what  trust,  what  reliance  can  they  have  for  one  ves- 
tige of  the  constitution  that  is  left  to  us  ?  Or  rather,  what 
privilege,  what  right,  what  security,  has  not  been  already 
violated  ? 

^lid  intactum  nefasti  Uquinius  f 

And  seeing  that  in  no  one  instance  have  they  hesitated  to 
go  the  full  lengwh  of  every  outrage  that  was  conceived  by 
the  minister,  that  they  have  been  touched  by  no  scruples, 
deterred  by  no  sense  of  duty,  corrected  by  no  experience 
of  calamity,  checked  by  no  admonition,  or  remonstrance  ; 
that  they  have  never  made  out  a  single  case  of  inquiry  ; 
that  they  have  never  interposed  a  single  restraint  upon 
abuse  ;  may  not  gentlemen  consistently  feel,  that  the  re- 
form, which  they  previously  thought  unnecessary,  is  now 
indispensable  ?  We  have  heard  to-day.  Sir,  all  the  old  ar- 
guments about  honor  on  the  one  side  being  as  liki^ly  as 
honor  on  the  other,  and  that  there  are  good  men  on  both 
sides  of  the  house  j  that  a  man  may  be  a  member  for  a 
close  borough  upon  the  one  side  of  the  house,  as  well  as 
upon  the  other  ;  and  that  he  may  be  a  good  man  sit  where 
he  may.  All  this,  Sir,  is  very  idle  language  ;  it  is  not 
the  question  at  issue  :  no  man  disputes  the  existence  of 
private  and  individual  integrity  ;  but.  Sir,  this  is  not  re- 
presentation :  if  a  man  comes  here  as  the  proprietor  of  a 
burgage  tenure,  he  does  not  come  here  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  people.  The  whole  of  this  system,  as  it  is 
now  carried  on,  is  as  outrageous  to  morality,  as  it  is 
pernicious  to  just  government.  It  gives  a  scandal  to  our 
character,  which  not  merely  degrades  the  house  of  com- 
mons in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  but  it  does  more,  it  un- 
dermines the  very  principles  of  integrity  in  their  hearts, 
and  gives  a  fashion  to  dishonesty  and  imposture.  They 
hear  of  a  person  giving  or  receiving  four  or  five  thousand 
pounds  as  the  purchase -money  of  a  seat  for  a  close  bo- 
rough :  and  thty  hQ«r  the  very  man  who  received,  and 
put  into  his  pocket  the  money,  make  a  loud  and  vehement 
speech  in  this  house  against  bribery  :  and  they  see  him 
perhaps  move  for  the  commitment  to  prison  of  a  poor 
nfortunate  wretch  at  your  bar,  who  has  been  convicted 


160  AMERICAN 

in  taking  a  single  guinea  for  his  vote  in  the  very  bo- 
rough, perhaps,  where  he  had  publicly,  and  unblushingly 
sold  his  influence,  though  that  miserable  guinea  was  ne- 
cessary to  save  a  family  fro;n  starving,  under  the  horrors 
of  a  war  which  he  had  contributed  to  bring  upon  the 
country !  Sir,  these  are  things  that  paralyse  you  to  the 
heart:  these  are  the  things  that  vitiate  the  t^hole  system, 
that  spread  degeneracy,  hypocrisy,  and  sordid  fraud  over 
the  country,  and  take  from  us  the  energies  of  virtue,  and 
sap  the  foundations  of  patriotism  and  spirit.  The  system 
that  encourages  so  much  vice,  ought  to  be  put  an  end  to; 
and  it  is  no  argument,  that  because  it  lasted  a  long  time 
•without  mischief,  it  ought  now  to  be  continued,  when  it 
is  found  to  be  pernicious :  it  is  arisen  to  a  height  that 
defeats  the  very  ends  of  government;  it  must  sink  under 
its  own  weakness.  And  this,  Sir,  is  not  a  case  pecu- 
liar to  itself,  but  is  inseparable  from  all  human  institu- 
tions. All  the  writers  of  eminence  upon  forms  of  govern- 
ment have  said,  that,  in  order  to  preserve  them,  frequent 
recurrence  must  be  had  to  their  original  principle.  This 
is  the  opinion  of  MoNTEsquiEU,  as  well  as  Machiavel. 
Gentlemen  will  not  be  inchned  to  dispute  the  authority 
of  the  latter  on  this  point  at  least  ;  and  he  says,  that 
without  this  recurrence  they  grow  out  of  shape,  and  de- 
viate from  their  general  form.  It  is  only  by  recurring  to 
former  principles  that  any  government  can  be  kept  pure 
and  unabused. 

"  But,  Sir,  there  is  a  lumping  consideration,  if  I  may 
be  allowed  the  phrase,  which  now  more  than  ever  ought 
to  make  every  man  a  convert  to  parliamentary  reform  i 
there  is  an  annual  revenue  of  twenty-three  millions  ster- 
ling collected  by  the  executive  government  from  the 
people.  Here,  Sir,  is  the  despot  of  election  ;  here  is 
the  ntw  power  that  is  grown  up  to  magnitude;  that 
bears  down  before  it  every  defensive  barrier  established 
by  our  ancestors  for  the  protection  of  the  people.  They 
had  no  such  tyrant  to  control ;  they  had  no  such  enemy 
to  oppose.  Against  every  thing  which  v/t.s  known,  against 
every  thing  which  was  seen,  they  did  provide  ;  but  it  did 
not  enter  into  the  contemplation  of  those  who  established 
the  checks  and  barriers  of  our  system,  that  they  would 
ever  have  to  stand  against  a  revenue  of  twenty  millions  a 


SPEAKER.  161 

year.  The  whole  landed  rental  of  the  kingdom  is  not 
estimated  at  more  than  twenty-five  millions  a  year  ;  and 
this  rental  is  divided  and  dispersed  over  a  large  body  who 
cannot  be  supposed  to  act  in  concert,  or  to  give  to  their 
power  the  force  of  combination,  and  unity  ;  but  even  if 
all  united,  organised,  and  exerted,  has  it  now  to  oppose 
a  power  nearly  equal  to  itself  in  one  hand,  in  a  hand  that 
has  all  the  means  of  hostility  prepared,  and  all  the  re- 
sources for  action  in  full  activity  ?  But  it  is  said,  that 
though  the  government  is  in  the  receipt  of  a  revenue  of 
twenty-three  millions  a  year,  it  has  not  the  expenditure 
.of  that  sum,  and  that  its  influence  ought  not  to  be  cal- 
culated from  what  it  receives,  but  what  it  has  to  pay 
away.  I  submit,  however,  to  the  good  sense,  and  to  the 
personal  experience  of  gentlemen  who  hear  me,  if  it  be 
not  a  manifest  truth,  that  influence  depends  almost  as  much 
upon  what  they  have  to  receive,  as  upon  what  they  have 
to  pay  ;  whether  it  does  not  proceed  as  much  from  the 
submission  of  the  dependent  who  has  a  debt  to  pay,  as  on 
the  gratitude  of  the  person  whose  attachment  they  re- 
ward ?  And  if  this  be  true,  in  the  influence  which  indi- 
vWuals  derive  from  the  rentals  of  their  estates,  and  from 
the  expenditure  of  that  rental,  how  much  more  so  is  it 
true  of  government,  who,  both  in  the  receipt  and  ex- 
penditure of  this  enormous  revenue,  are  actuated  by  one 
invariable  principU-,  that  of  extending  or  withholding  fa- 
vor  in  exact  proportion  to  the  submission  or  resistance 
to  their  measures  which  the  individuals  mv.ke  ?-  Compare 
this  revenue,  then,  with  that  against  which  our  ancestors 
were  so  anxious  to  protect  us,  and  compare  this  revenue 
with  all  the  buhvarks  of  our  constitution  in  preceding  times.^ 
and  }'ou  must  acknowledge,  that  though  those  bulwarks 
were  sufficient  to  protect  us  in  the  days  of  King  Wil- 
liam and  Queen  Anne,  they  are  not  equal  to  the  enemy 
we  have  now  to  resist.  But  it  is  said,  what  will  this  re- 
form do  for  us  ?  Will  it  be  a  talisman  sufficient  to  retrieve 
all  the  misfortunes  which  we  have  incurred  ?  I  am  free  to 
say,  that  it  would  not  be  suflicient^  unless  it  led  to  re- 
forms of  substantial  expense,  and  to  reform  of  all  the  abu- 
ses that  have  crept  into  our  government.  But,  at  the  same 
time,  I  think  it  would  do  this,  I  think  it  would  give  uo 
Vne  chance,  as  I  said  before,  of  recovery >.    It  would  gire 

P  Z 


1G2  ^    •  AMERICAN 

us,  in  the  first  place,  a  Parliament  vigilant  and  scrupulosis , 
and  that  would  ensure  to  us  a  government  active  and  eco- 
nomical. It  would  prepare  the  way  for  every  rational  im- 
provement, of  which,  without  disturbing  the  parts,  our  con- 
stitution is  susceptible.  It  would  do  more  ;  it  would  open 
the  way  for  exertions  infinitely  more  extensive  than  all  that 
wc  have  hitherto  made. 

"  It  has  often  been  a  question,  both  within  and  without 
these  walls,  how  far  representatives  ought  to  b^  bound  by 
the  instructions  of  their  constituents.  It  is  a  question 
upon  which  my  mind  is  not  altogether  made  up,  though  I 
own  I  lean  to  the  opinion  that  having  to  legislate  for  the 
empire,  they  ought  not  to  be  altogether  guided  by  instruc- 
tions that  may  be  dictated  by  local  interests.  I  cannot, 
however,  approve  of  the  very  ungracious  manner  in  which 
I  sometimes  hear  expressions  of  contempt  for  the  opinion 
of  constituents ;  they  are  made  with  a  very  bad  grace  in 
the  first  session  of  a  septennial  Parliament,  particularly  if 
-hey  should  come  from  individuals  who  in  the  concluding 
session  of  a  former  Parliament  did  not  scruple  to  court 
the  favor  of  the  very  same  constituents,  by  declaring  that 
they  voted  against  their  conscience  in  compliance  with 
their  desire,  as  was  the  case  with  an  honorable  alderman 
of  the  city  of  London.  But,  Sir,  there  is  one  class  of 
constituents,  whose  instructions  it  is  considered  as  the  im- 
plicit duty  of  members  to  obey.  When  gentlemen  repre- 
sent populous  towns  and  cities,  then  it  is  disputable,  whe- 
ther they  ought  to  obey  their  voice,  or  follow  the  dictates 
of  their  own  conscience  ;  but  if  they  represent  a  noble 
Lord,  or  a  noble  Duke,  then  it  becomes  no  longer  a  ques- 
tion of  doubt;  he  is  not  considered  as  a  man  of  honor 
who  does  not  implicitly  obey  the  orders  of  his  single  con- 
stituent. He  is  to  have  no  conscience,  no  liberty,  no  dis- 
cretion of  his  own  ;  he  is  sent  here  by  my  Lord  this,  or 
the  Duke  of  that;  and  if  he  does  not  obey  the  instruc- 
tions he  receives,  he  is  not  to  be  considered  as  a  man  of 
honor  and  a  gentleman.  Such  is  the  mode  of  reasoning 
that  prevails  in  this  house.  Is  this  fair?  Is  there  any 
reciprocity  in  this  conduct  ?  Is  a  gentleman  to  be  per- 
mitted, without  dishonor,  to  act  in  opposition  to  the  sen- 
tim.ents  of  the  city  of  London,  of  the  city  of  Westmins- 
ter, or  of  Bristol :  but  if  he  dares  to  disagree  with  the 


SPEAKER.  163 

Duke  or  Lonl,  or  Baronet,  whose  representative  he  if, 
than  he  nnust  be  considered  as  unfit  for  the  society  of  men 
of  honor  ? 

'*  This,  Sir,  is  the  chicane  and  t)ranny  of  corruption; 
and  this,  at  the  same  time  is  called  representation.  In  a 
very  great  degree  the  county  members  are  held  in  the 
same  sc^t  of  thraldom.  A  number  of  peers  possess  an 
overweening  interest  in  the  county,  and  a  gentleman  is  no 
longer  permitted  to  hold  his  situation  than  as  he  acts  agree- 
,  able  to  the  dictates  of  those  powerful  f.imilies.  Let  us  see 
'  how  ^he  whole  of  this  stream  of  corruption  has  been  di- 
verted from  the  side  of  the  people  to  that  of  the  crown ; 
with  what  a  constant  persevering  art,  every  man  who  is 
possessed  of  influence  in  counties,  corporations,  or  bo- 
roughs, that  will  yield  to  the  solicitations  of  the  court,  is 
drawn  over  to  that  phalanx  which  is  opposed  to  the  small 
remnant  of  popular  election.  I  hare  looked.  Sir,  to  the 
machinations  of  the  present  minister  in  that  way,  and  I 
find  that  including  the  number  of  additional  titles,  the 
right  honorable  gentleman  has  made  no  fewer  than  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  peers  in  the  course  of  his  administra- 
tion ;  that  is  to  say,  he  has  bestowed  no  fewer  than  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  titles,  including  new  creations  and 
elevations  from  one  rank  to  another.  How  many  of  these 
are  to  be  ascribed  to  national  services,  and  how  many  to 
parliamentary  interest,  I  leave  the  house  to  inquire.  The 
country  is  not  blind  to  these  arts  of  influence,  and  it  is 
impossible  that  we  can  expect  tlitm  to  continue  to  endure 
them. 

<*  When  we  look  to  the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  we  see 
a  state  of  representation  so  monstrous  and  absurd,  so 
ridiculous  and  revolting,  that  it  is  good  for  nothing  ex- 
cept perhaps  to  be  placed  by  the  side  of  the  English,  in 
order  to  set  off  our  defective  system,  by  the  comparison 
of  one  still  more  defective.  In  Scotland  there  is  no  sha- 
dow even  of  representation  ;  there  is  neither  a  representa- 
tion of  property  for  the  counties,  nor  of  population  for 
the  towns.  It  is  not  what  we  understand  in  England  by 
freeholders,  that  el  ct  in  the  counties  :  the  right  is  vested 
in  what  is  called  the  superiorities  ;  and  it  might  so  hap- 
pen that  all  the  members  for  the  counties  of  Scotland 
might  come  here  without  having  the  vote  of  a  single  per- 


164  AMERICAN 

son  \vho  had  a  foot  of  property  in  the  land.  This  is  an 
extreme  case  ;  but  it  is  within  the  limits  of  their  system. 
In  the  boroughs,  their  magistrates  are  self  elected,  and 
therefore  the  members  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  popu- 
lation of  the  towns. 

"  Now,  Sir,  having  shewn  this  to  be  the  state  of  the 
country,  and  the  state  of  our  representation,  I  ask  you 
what  remedy  there  can  be  other  than  reform  ?  miat  can 
we  expect,  as  the  necessary  result  of  a  system  so  defec- 
tive and  vicious  in  all  its  parts,  but  increased  and  increas- 
ing calamities,  until  we  shall  be  driven  to  a  convulsion 
that  would  overthrow  every  thing  ?  If  we  do  not  apply 
this  remedy  in  time,  our  fate  is  inevitable.  Our  most  il- 
lustrious patriots,  and  the  men  whose  memories  are  the 
dearest  to  Englishmen,  have  long  ago  pointed  out  to  us 
parliamentary  reform  as  the  only  means  of  redressing 
national  grievance.  I  need  not  inform  you,  that  Sir 
George  Saville  was  its  most  strenuous  advocate  :  I 
need  not  tell -you  that  the  venerable  and  illustrious  Cam- 
ben  was  through  life  a  steady  adviser  of  seasonable  re- 
form :  nay,  Sir,  to  a  certain  degree  we  have  the  authority 
of  Mr.  Burke  himself  for  the  propriety  of  correcting  the 
abuses  of  our  system  :  for  gentlemen  will  remember  the 
memorable  answer  that  he  gave  to  the  argument  that  was 
used  for  our  right  of  taxing  America,  on  the  score  of  their 
being  virtually  represented  ;  and  that  they  were  in  the 
same  situation  as  Manchester,  Birmingham,  and  Sheffield. 
%Vhat !  said  Mr.  Burke,  when  the  people  of  America 
look  up  to  you  with  the  eyes  of  fi>ial  love  and  affection, 
will  you  turn  to  them  the  shameful  parts  of  the-  constitu- 
tion ?  With,  then,  the  concurrivig  testimony  of  so  many 
authorities  for  correcting  our  abuses,  why  do  we  hesitate  I 
Can  we  do  any  harm  by  experimtut  ?  Can  we  possibly  put 
ourselves  into  a  worse  condition  than  we  are  ?  What  ad- 
vantages we  shall  gain,  I  know  not :  I  think  we  shall  gain 
many  :  I  think  we  shall  gam  at  least  the  chance  of  warding 
off  the  evil  of  confusion  growing  out  of  accumulated  dis- 
cotitent :  I  think  that  we  shall  save  ourselves  from  the  evil 
that  has  fallen  upon  Ireland:  I  think  that  we  shall  satisfy 
the  n.oderatt,  and  take  even  from  the  violent,  if  any  such 
there  be,  the  powers  of  increasing  their  numbers,  and  of 
making  converts  to  their  schemes.  This,  Sir,  is  my  solema 


SPEAKER.  165 

opinion,  and  upon  this  ground  it  is  that  I  recommend, 
with  earnestness  and  solicitude,  the  proposition  of  my  ho- 
norable friend. 

"  Sir,  I  have  done  !  I  have  given  my  advice.  I  pro- 
pose the  remedy,  and  fatal  will  it  be  for  England,  if  pride 
and  prejudice  much  longer  continue  to  oppose  it.  The 
remedy,  which  is  proposed,  is  simple,  easy,  and  practica- 
ble ;  it  does  not  touch  the  vitals  of  the  constitution,  and 
I  sincerely  believe  it  will  restore  us  to  peace  and  harmo- 
ny. Do  you  think  that  you  must  not  come  to  parliamen- 
tary reform  soon  ?  And  is  it  not  better  to  come  to  it  now, 
when  you  have  the  power  of  deliberation,  than  when  per- 
b.aps  it  may  be  extorted  from  you  by  convulsion  ?  There 
is  as  yet  time  to  frame  it  with  freedom  and  discussion  ; 
it  will  even  yet  go  to  the  people  with  the  grace  and  favor 
of  a  spontaneous  act.  What  will  it  be,  when  it  is  extort- 
ed from  you  with  indignation  and  violence  ?  God  forbid 
that  this  should  be  the  case  j  but  now  is  the  moment  to  pre- 
vent it ;  and  now,  I  say,  wisdom  and  policy  recommend 
it  to  you,  when  you  may  enter  into  all  the  considerations  to 
which  it  leads,  rather  than  to  postpone  it  to  a  time,  when 
you  will  have  nothing  to  consider,  but  the  number  and 
force  of  those  who  demand  it." 


Extract  from  the  Speech  of  Mr,  Beaufoy^  on  his  7noti07i 
for  repealing  the  Corporation  and  Test  Laws^  Jllay  8thy 
'^1789. 

"  A  foreigner,  would  naturally  ask,  what  are  these  Dis- 
senters that  their  right  to  the  common  privileges  of  citi- 
zens should  be  disputed  ?  Are  they  slaves  to  the  rest  of 
the  community  ;  or  are  they  offenders  who  have  forfeited 
their  privileges  by  their  crimes  ;  or  are  they  persons  who 
from  their  religious  tenets  are  unable,  or  from  disaffection 
to  the  state  are  unwilling,  to  give  the  necessary  pledges  of 
obedience  ?  Not  as  slaves  to  the  rest  of  the  community, 
do  we  deny  them  the  usual  privileges  of  citizens  ;  for 
thanks  to  the  spirit  of  our  ancestors,  there  is  in  Great 
Britain  no  such  description  of  men.  Not  as  criminals  do 
we  exclude  them  from  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights;  for 
of  the  millions  of  subjects  who  inhabit  the  kingdom,  there 


.166  AMERICAN 

are  none  of  more  untainted  integritj',  or  of  more  unques 
tionable  honor.  Neither  as  persons  who  are  unable,  or 
unwilling  to  give  sufficient  pledge  of  their  obedience  to  the 
state,  do  we  reject  them  ;  for  such  is  the  satisfaction  which 
we  feel  in  the  pledges  they  give  of  their  attachment, — 
such  is  our  reliance  upon  the  oa-hs  which  they  are  at  all 
times  willing  to  take,  that  without  hesitation  or  reserve  we 
admit  them  to  the  highest  of  all  trusts,  that  of  legislative 
power  ;  but  the  ground  on  which  we  do  refuse  them  the 
rights  and  privileges  which  their  fellow-citizens  enjoy,  is 
their  presuming  to  believe,  that  in  those  concerns  of  reli- 
gion which  relate  not  to  actions  but  opinions,  it  is  every 
man's  duty,  as  it  is  every  man's  right,  to  follow  the  dic- 
tates of  his  own  understanding.  To  be  convinced  by  the 
evidence  of  another  man's  judgment,  in  opposition  to  the 
evidence  of  their  own,  they  conceive  to  be  as  impossible 
as  to  credit  the  testimony  of  another  man's  sight  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  evidence  of  their  own  eyes.  It  is  this  adhe- 
rence to  a  necessary  conclusion  from  self-evident  premises; 
it  is  this  attachment  to  an  unavoidable  inference  from  ax- 
ion^s  which  no  man  living  disputes  ;  it  is  this  uniform  re- 
gard for  the  right  of  private  judgment  in  matters  of  reli- 
gion, which,  in  the  contemplation  of  the  law,  outweighs  all 
sense  of  their  virtues  as  men,  all  esteem  of  their  patriot- 
ism as  citizens,  all  respect  for  their  loyalty  as  subjects  ;  it 
is  this  which  has  induced  us  to  Impose  on  them  civil  dis- 
abilities, without  the  commission  of  any  offence.  It  is 
this  \\  hich  has  impelled  us  to  subject  them,  as  far  as  the 
law  can  subject  them,  to  the  same  disabilities,  the'  same 
dishonor,  with  those  who  have  been  publicly  convicted  of 
wilful,  corrupt,  and  deliberate  perjury.  Because  you  will 
not  consent  to  be  hypocrites,  therefore,  say  the  laws,  you 
shall  be  treated  as  if  you  were  perjured.  No  office  under 
the  crown,  though  your  sovereign  may  invite  you  to  his. 
service;  no  commission  in  the  army,  though  the  enemy 
may  be  marching  to  the  capital ;  no  share  in  the  manage- 
ment of  any  of  the  commercial  companies  of  the  kingdom, 
though  your  whole  fortunes  maybe  vested  in  their  stocks, 
shall  be  yours  :  from  the  direction  of  the  bank  of  England, 
from  the  direction  of  the  East  India  Company,  from  that 
of  Russia,  the  Turkish  and  South  Sea  companies,  you  are 
entirely  debarred  ]  for  if  you  should  accept  of  any  share 


SPEAKER.  ler 

in  the  management  of  these  Companies,  cr  of  any  office 
under  the  crown,  or  of  any  military  employment,  you  are 
within  the  penalties  of  the  statutes.  In  the  first  place,  yoii 
forfeit  to  the  informer  the  sum  of  500/.  if  you  cannot  pay 
that  sum  without  delay,  the  penalty  is  imprisonment;  if 
you  cannot  pay  it  at  all,  as  may  be  the  case  with  many  a 
brave  officer,  who  has  offended  against  the  law  by  fighting 
the  battles  of  his  country,  the  penalty  is  imprisonment  for 
life.  In  the  next  place,  you  are  incapable  of  suing  for  any 
debt.  Does  any  one  owe  you  money  ?  Have  you  entrust- 
ed him  with  your  whole  fortune?  It  is  in  his  power  to  can- 
cel that  debt,  by  annulling  your  means  of  recovering  it  ; 
and  for  that  act  of  dishonesty,  of  consummate  fraud,  of 
treachery  in  the  extreme,  the  parliament  assigns  him  a  re- 
ward of  500/.  to  be  bequeathed  from  the  wreck  of  your 
fortune.  In  the  next  place,  the  law  denies  you  its  protec- 
tion :  for  the  wrongs  which  he  has  done  you,  and  for  the 
insults  and  the  injuries,  however  atrocious,  which  you 
have  experienced  from  him,  you  shall  have  no  redress  :  to 
the  complaints  of  others  against  you,  the  ear  of  the  magis- 
trate is  open  ;  but  to  your  supplications,  to  your  prayers, 
to  your  complaints,  it  is  from  this  time  forward  inexora- 
bly shut.  You  are  condemned  to  wretchedness  and  beg- 
gary for  life.  In  the  next  place,  you  are  incapable  of  re- 
ceiving any  legacy  ;  the  inheritance  bequeathed  by  your 
parents  you  cannot  take  ;  your  rights  as  sons  are  cancell- 
ed. In  the  last  place,  your  are  also  incapable  of  being 
guardian  to  any  child,  even  to  your  own.  A  former  pe- 
nalty annihilated  your  right  as  a  child  ;  this  abrogates  your 
privileges  as  a  parent.  Such  are  the  strong  coercions  by 
which  the  Dissenters  are  excluded  from  the  enjoyment, 
not  only  of  their  most  valuable  privileges  as  citizens,  but 
of  rights  which  they  hold  by  a  higher  title,  and  claim  by 
a  superior  authority  to  any  which  civil  governments  bes- 
tow. How  hard,  then,  is  the  situation  of  a  Dissenter?  If 
he  should  disobey  the  laws,  which  exclude  him  from  civil 
and  military  employments,  and  should  accept  of  any  office 
to  which  the  choice  of  his  sovereign,  or  the  confidence 
of  his  fellow-citizens  may  invite  him,  he  is  robbed  of  his 
fortune,  stripped  of  his  inheritance,  d'.  prived  of  his  per- 
sonal security,  and  bereaved  of  his  priviKi^cs  which  result 
from  a  natural  relation  of  a  father  to  his  child !  If,  on  the 


168  AMERICAN 

other  hand,  he  should  acquiesce  in  the  law,  and  pursue 
no  employments  in  the  army,  in  the  state,  or  in  the  com- 
mercial companies  of  the  kingdom,  he  submits  to  the 
same  disability,  and  acquiesces  in  the  same  degradation 
which  belongs  to  those  who  are  convicted  of  wilful,  cor-  < 
rupt,  and  deliberate  perjury ;  he  is  loaded  with  the  same 
punishments  which  are  inflicted  on  those  who  have  tramp- 
led on  the  first  principles  of  religion,  broken  down  the 
strongest  fences  of  civil  government,  and  violated  the 
most  solemn  obligations  of  human  society.  Such  disa- 
bilities, so  imposed,  are  naked  and  undissembled  wrongs ; 
and,  inflicted  for  religious  opinions,  nearly  constitute  per- 
secution ;  for  what  is  persecution,  but  injuries  inflicted 
for  religious  belief?  It  is  its  true  definition,  its  just  and 
accurate  description.  What  then  are  the  consequences 
which  follow  from  these  melancholy  facts  ?  Injurious,  and 
perhaps  unexpected  as  the  conclusion  is,  we  are  compell- 
ed, by  the  evidence  of  truths  which  we  cannot  dispute, 
to  acknowledge  that  the  pretended  toleration  of  the  Dis- 
senters is  a  real  persecution — a  persecution  which  de- 
prives them  of  a  part  of  their  civil  rights,  and  which,  with 
the  same  justice,  and  on  the  same  plea,  might  equally  de- 
prive them  of  the  rest — a  persecution  which  denies  them 
the  management  of  their  property,  and  which,  with  the 
same  justice,  and  on  the  same  plea,  might  equally  take 
from  them  the  property  itself — a  persecution  which  de- 
prives them  of  the  right  of  defending  their  liberties  and 
lives,  and  which,  with  the  same  justice,  and  precisely  on 
the  same  plea,  might  equally  deprive  them  both  of  liberty 
and  life.  If  one  degree  of  persecution  may  be  justified, 
another  degree  of  it,  under  different  circumstances,  may 
be  justified  also.  Let  but  the  principle  be  once  admitted, 
and  the  Inquisition  of  Portugal  and  Spain  cease  to  be  ob- 
jects either  of  ridicule,  or  of  abhorrence. 

"  Does  the  voice  of  a  sovereign  in  a  fearful  and  peril- 
ous season,  call  the  Dissenters  to  his  service,  or  does  the 
strong  impulse  of  affection  for  their  native  land  urge  them 
to  oppose  their  strength  to  the  invading  enemy,  and  to 
shew  him  that  his  sword  must  pass  through  their  breast, 
before  it  can  reach  that  of  their  country  ?  Presumptuous 
men  !  what  shall  be  your  fate  ?  From  this  time  forward 
you  shall  be  treated  as  outcasts  from  the  community !  The 


SPEAKER.  169 

law  shall  with-hold  from  you  the  guards  with  which  it  pro* 
tects  the  personal  security  of  the  subject ;  and  even  the 
rights  of  inheritance  shall  be  taken  from  you.     Do  you 
complain  that,  guiltless  of  any  offence,  except  the  offence 
of  having  bled  for  your  country,  you  are  subjected  to  pe- 
nalties so  severe  ?  It  is  but  the  lightest  part  of  your  pun- 
ishment ;  a  higher  scourge  remains.     It  is  on  your  feel- 
ings as  parents  that  the  1j!w  shall  inflict  its  deepest  wound. 
Tainted  in  the  eyes  of  your  offspring  as  unfit  to  be  trust- 
ed with  the  care  of  their  education,  or  the  superintendance 
of  their  morals,  your  natural  affection  shall  be  made  the  in- 
striiment  of  your  severest  anguish.    O  most  incomparable 
system  of  ingenious  cruelty  !    A  considerable  part  of  the 
be'bt  subjects  of  the  kingdom  cannot  indulge  their  attach- 
ment to  their  native  land,  but  at  the  expense  of  their  at- 
tachment to  their  offspring.  The  passion  of  the  father  for 
his  child  is  opposed  to  his  passion  for  the  country.     The 
barbarian,  of  whom  we  read  in  the  papers  on  your  table 
that  African  tyrant  who  has  carried  the  science  of  despo- 
tism to  a  perfection  which  Nero  never  knew,  even  he  as- 
pires at  nothing  more  than  to  destroy  the  family  attach- 
ment, and  to  annihilate  the  parental  feeling.  He  does  not 
attempt  to  oppose  the  attachment  of  the  father  to  the  duty 
of  the  citizen  ;  but  the  British  law  is  founded  in  deeper 
cruelty.   Its  object  is  to  create  a  war  of  attachments,  and 
to  establish  a  conflict  of  passions.     It  is  to  make  virtue 
inconsistent  with  virtue,  duty  irreconcilable  to  duty,  af- 
fection incompatable  with  uffection.  Can  such  laws  be  con- 
sistent with  the  interests  of  the  state  ?  When  the  king- 
dom, a  few  years  sinqe,  was  assailed  by  the  adherents  to 
another  claimant  of  the  crown  ;  when  the  faith  of  a  large 
proportion  of  people  was   dubious ;   when  the  loyalty  of 
many  of  those  who  were  near  the  person  of  the  king  was 
thought  to  be  tainted,  and  terror  had  palsied  even  more 
than  corruption  had  seduced,  what  was  then  the  conduct 
of  the  Protestant  Dlssentors  of  England?  To  say,  that  of 
the  multitudes  which  composed  that  varied  society  there 
was  not  one  man,  not  a  single  individual,  who  joined  the 
enemy  of  his  Majesty's  house,  (unexampled  as  this  proof 
of  their  loyalty  was)  is,  however,  but  to  speak  the  small- 
est part  of  their  praise  ;  for  at  the  very  time  when  the  ar 
mies  of  the  state  had  been  repeatedly  discomfited ;  at  the 


iro  AMERICAN  - 

very  time  that  those  uho  reached  at  his  Majesty's  crown 
were  actually  in  possession  of  the  center  of  the  kingdom  ; 
at  the  very  time  when  Britain,  unable  to  rely  on  her  na- 
tive strength,  and  hourly  trembling  for  her  safety,  had  re- 
course to  foreign  aid  ;  at  that  very  time,  the  Dissenters, 
regardless  of  the  dreadful  penalties  of  the  law,  and  anxious 
for  their  country  alone,  eagerly  took  up  arms.  And  what 
was  the  return  which  they  received  ?  As  soon  as  the  dan- 
ger was  passed  by,  they  were  compelled  to  solicit  protec- 
tion of  that  general  mercy  which  was  extended  to  the  very 
rebels  against  whom  they  fought  j  they  were  obliged  to  shel- 
ter themselves  under  that  act  of  grace  which  was  granted 
to  the  very  traitors,  from  whose  arms  they  had  defended 
the  cro^vn,  and  the  life  of  the  sovereign.  It  was  thus  only 
that  they  escaped  those  dreadful  penalties  which  they  in- 
curred by  their  loyalty,  and  which  the  irritated  friends  of 
the  rebellion  were  impatient  to  bring  down  upon  them.  To 
the  disgrace  of  our  statutes,  to  the  dishonor  of  the  British 
name,  to  thereproach  of  humanity,  these  persecuting  sta- 
tutes are  still  unrepealed. 

"  As  yet,  I  have  spoken  as  an  advocate  for  a  numerous 
description  of  my  fellow-subjects,  whose  moral  virtues  I 
esteem,  whose  patriotism  I  revere,  whose  situation,  as ' 
muth  injured  men,  has  strongly  attached  me  to  their  cause, 
but  to  whose  religious  persuasion  I  myself  do  not  belong. 
Permit  me  now,  for  a  few  moments,  before  I  conclude,  to 
speak  of  interests,  in  which  I  have  a  more  immediate  and 
personal  concern,  the  interest  of  the  church  of  England. 
From  all  testimonies,  ancient  and  modern,  I  have  ever 
understood,  that  the  worst  practice^  of  which  a  legislature 
can  be  guilty,  is  that  of  employing  the  laws  of  a  country 
to  degrade  and  make  contemptible  the  religion  of  the 
countrv»  For  what  man  is  so  little  acquainted  with  the 
motives  of  the  human  heart,  or  knows  so  little  of  the  his- 
tory of  nations,  as  not  to  be  aware,  'that  in  proportion  as 
he  Weakens  in  the  people  thejr  respect  for  religion,  he 
corrupts  their  manners,  and  in  proportion  as  he  corrupts 
their  manners,  he  renders  all  laws  ineffectual.  Now,  of 
all  the  solemn  rites  and  sacred  ordinances  of  her  taith, 
there  is  not  one  so  guarded  round  with  terrors,  and  over  i 
which  the  avenging  sword  of  the  Almighty  appears  so 
distinctly  to  the  view,  as  the  ordinance  of  the  holy  sacra- 


SPEAKER.  in 

nietit ;  for,  *  he  who  presumes  to  eat  of  that  bread,  ancl  to 
drink  of  that  cup  unworthily,  eateth,  and  drinkcth  his  own 
damnation  ;  he  is  guilty  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
and  provokes  the  Almighty  to  plague  him  with  divers  dis- 
eases, and  sundry  kinds  of  death.'  That  these  terrible  de- 
nunciations may  not  be  lightly  and  unthinkingly  incurred, 
the  minister  is  directed,  when  he  stands  at  the  holy  altar, 
to  prohibit  the  approach  of  all  persons  of  abandoned  mo- 
rals and  of  a  profligate  life.  Such  are  the  injunctions  of 
his  religion  ;  but  the  law  tells  him,  that  to  those  very  per- 
sons, abandoned  and  profligate  as  they  are,  if  by  any  means 
they  have  found  their  way  to  office,  he  must  administer 
the  sacrament.  Is  he  informed,  that  the  man  who  demands 
it,  is  covered  with  crimes  ;  a  smuggler  perhaps  (for  such 
appointments  have  been  at  no  time  unfrequent)  who  h  is 
obtained  his  employment  as  a  reward  for  having  betrayed 
his  associates,  and  for  having  added  private  treachery  to 
a  long  course  of  public  fraud  ?  Is  he  also  told,  that  thTs  man, 
new  as  he  is  to  office,  is  already  supposed  to  have  violated 
his  oath,  and  that  the  weight  of  accumulated  perjury  is 
already  on  his  head  ?  Still  however,  the  clergyman  must 
comply  with  his  demand  ;  for  perjured  as  he  is,  the  Test 
act  has  given  him  a  legal  right  to  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  Should  the  minister  refuse,  the  expanse 
of  a  ruinous  suit  would  devour  his  scanty  means,  and  con- 
sign him  for  life  to  a  prison.  Thus  circumstanced,  the 
minister  has  no  choice  ;  yet  he  cannot  but  know  that  in 
taking  it  unworthily  he  eats,  and  drinks  his  own  damna- 
tion !  Such  is  the  task  which  the  Test  act  has  assigned  to 
these  v'.-ry  men,  whose  particular  duty  it  is  to  guard  their 
fellow-subjects  froni  perdition,  and  to  guide  them  in  their 
road  to  happiness.  If  in  the  records  of  human  extrava- 
gance, or  of  human  guilt,  there  can  be  found  a  law  more 
presumptuous  than  this,  I  will  give  up  the  cause.  And  to 
what  purpose  is  this  debasement  of  religion  ?  If  it  be 
thought  requisite  that  Dissenters  he  excluded  from  the 
common  privileges  of  citizens,  why  must  the  sacrament, 
be  made  the  instrument  of  the  wrong  ?  Why  must  the  pu- 
rity of  the  temple  be  polluted  i  Why  must  the  sanctity  of 
the  altar  be  defiled?  Why  must  the  most  sacred  ordinance 
of  her  faith  be  exposed  to  such  gross,  such  unnecessary 
prostitution  ?  If  there  be  persons  who  are  too  little  attach- 


172  AMERICAN 

ed  to  the  theory  of  the  Christian  faith,  to  be  shocked  at 
the  impiety,  ihey  must  at  least  be  astonished  at  the  folly 
of  such  a  conduct. 

"  The  Saviour  of  the  world  instituted  the  Eucharist  in 
commemoration  of  his  death,  an  event  so  tremendous  that 
nature  afflicted  hid  herself  in  Ularkncss ;  but  the  British 
legislature  has  made  it  a  qualification  for  guaging  beer- 
barrels  and  soap-borlers's  tubs  ;  for  writing  Custom-house 
cockets  and  debentures,  and  for  seizing  smuggled  tea  ! 
The  mind  is  oppressed  with  ideas  so  mis-shapen  and  mon- 
strous !  Sacrilege,  hateful  as  it  always  is,  never  before  as- 
sumed  an  appearance  so  hideous  and  deformed.  Endea- 
vours have  been  often  used  to  justify  the  legal  establish- 
ment of  this  impious  profanation,  by  comparing  it  with 
those  provisions  of  our  law,  which  enjoined  the  sanction 
of  an  oath  :  but  the  argument  equally  insults  the  integrity 
ani  understanding  of  every  man  to  whom  it  is  addressed  ; 
for  though  it  be,  indeed,  true,  that  the  legislature  by  com- 
peltirg  every  petty-officer  of  the  revenue,  and  every  col- 
icttor  of  a  turnpike  toll,  to  swear  deeply  on  his  admission 
into  office,  and  has  madt  the  crime  of  perjury  more  fre- 
quent than  it  ever  before  was  in  any  age  or  country,  yet 
how  does  tiie  frequent  commission  of  this  crime  against 
law  justify  the  establishment  of  a  religious  profanation  by 
law  ?  But  without  commenting  on  the  folly  of  pleading  for 
a  legislative  debasement  of  religion  in  one  way,  by  shew- 
ing that  the  legislature  has  contributed  to  its  debasement 
in  another,  what  resemblance  does  the  saciament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  which  is  merely  a  religious  institution, 
bear  to  the  ceremony  of  an  oath,  which  is  an  institution 
entirely  political  ?  An  oath  answers  none  of  the  purposes 
of  religion  i  it  neither  promotes  any  of  her  interests,  nor 
forms  any  prirt  of  her  establishment.  It  belongs  to  the 
Je\y,  the  Mahometan,  and  the  idolator  of  every  descrip- 
tion, as  much  as  it  belongs  to  the  Christian  ;  but  such  are 
the  arguments  b)  which  the  Test  and  Corporation  acts 
have  ever  been  defended." 


SPEAKER. 


Ertract  from  a  Speech  of  Mr.  Fox^  on  the  same  subject^ 
May  2d,  1790. 

«  Were  we  to  recur  to  first  principles,  and  observe  the 
progress  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  first  stages  of  its 
propagation,  we  should  perceive  that  no  vice,  evil,  or  de- 
triment had  ever  sprung  from  toleration.  Persecution  had 
always  been  a  fertile  source  of  much  evil :  perfidy,  cruel- 
ty, and  murder  had  often  been  the  co  .sequence  of  intole- 
rant principles.  The  massacres  at  Paris,  the  martyrdom 
at  Smithfield,  and  the  executions  of  the  Inquisition,  were 
among  the  many  horrid  and  detestable  crimes  which  had 
at  different  times  originated  solely  from  persecution.  To 
suppose  a  man  wicked,  or  immoral,  merely  on  account  of 
any  difference  of  religious  opinion,  was  as  false  as  it  was 
absurd  ;  yet  this  was  the  original  principle  of  persecution* 
Morality  was  thought  to  be  most  efiectually  enforced  and 
propagated,  by  insisting  on  a  general  luiity  of  religious  sen- 
timents \  the  dogmas  of  men  in  power  were  to  be  substitut- 
ed in  the  room  of  every  other  religious  opinion,  as  it  might 
best  answer  the  ends  of  policy  and  ambition  ;  it  proceeded 
entirely  on  this  grand  fundamental  error,  that  one  man 
could  better  judge  of  the  religious  opinions  of  another  than 
the  man  himself  could.  Upon  this  absurd  principle,  per- 
secution might  be  consistent ;  but  in  this  it  resembled  mad= 
ness  ;  the  characteristic  of  which  v;as,  acting  consistently 
upon  wrong  principles.  The  doctrines  of  Christianity 
might  h.ivc  been  expected  to  possess  sufficient  influence  to- 
counteract  this  great  error :  but  the  reverse  had  proved  to 
be  the  case.  Torture  and  death  had  been  the  auxiliaries  of 
persecution — ihe  grand  engines  used  in  support  of  one 
particular  system  of  religious  opinion,  to  the  extero.^i nation 
of  every  other.  Toleration  proceeded  on  direct  contrary 
principles.  Its  doctrines,  he  was  sorry  to  say,  even  ia 
this  enlightened  age,  were  but  of  a  modern  date  in  any 
part  of  the  world.  Before  the  reign  of  king  V/iLLiAirr^ 
it  had  not  a  footing  in  England*  The  celebrated  act  of 
toleration  of  that  reign,  notwithstanding  the  boasted  Iibe?- 
lality  of  its  prmciple^  was  narrow,  confined,  and  inconx- 
plcte.  What  was  it,  but  a  toleration  of  thirty-four  arti- 
cles, out  of  thirty-nine  prescxibed  as  the  standard  of  be-' 
Q  2 


ir4  AMERICAN 

lief  in  matters  of  religion  ?  Was  any  tolerated  who  did  not 
subscribe  to  the  thirty-four  articles  in  question  ?  No ! 
Strict  and  implicit  conformity  to  these  was  enjoined  on  ac- 
cepting any  civil  employment.  Persecution  indeed  origi- 
nally might  be  allowed  to  proceed  on  this  principle  of  kind- 
ness— to  promote  an  union  of  religious  opinion,  and  to  pre- 
vent error  in  the  important  matters  of  Christian  belief. 
But  did  persecution  ever  succeed  .in  this  truly  humane 
and  charitable  design  ?  Never — Toleration,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  founded  on  the  broad  and  liberal  basis  of  rea- 
son and  philosophy.  It  consisted  in  a  just  diffidence  of 
our  own  particular  opinion,  and  recommended  universal 
charity  and  forbearance  to  the  world  around  us.  The  true 
friend  of  toleration  ought  never  to  impute  evil  intentions 
to  another,  whose  opinions  might,  in  his  apprehensions,  be 
{attended  with  dangerous  consequences.  The  man  pro- 
fessing such  opinions  might  not  be  aware  of  any  evil  a:- 
tached  to  his  principles ;  and  therefore  to  ascribe  to  such 
a  person  any  hostile  intention,  when  his  opinions  only 
might  be  liable  to  exception,  was  but  the  height  of  illibe- 
rality  and  uncharitableness.  Thus  much  obloquy  and  un^ 
founded  calumny  had  been  used  to  asperse  the  character 
of  the  Roman  Catholics,  on  account  of  the  supposed  ten- 
dency of  their  religious  tenets  to  the  commission  of  mur- 
der, treason,  and  every  other  species  of  horrid  crimes,  from 
a  principle  of  conscience  !  What  was  this,  but  a  base  im- 
putation of  evil  intentions,  from  the  uncharitable  opinions 
entertained  of  that  profession  as  a  sect  ?  He  lamented  their 
errors ;  rejected  their  opinions,  which  appeared  danger- 
ous ;  was  ready  to  confide  in  liieir  good  professions  ;  and 
v/as  v/iiling  to  appeal  to  the  experience  of  this  enlightened 
agt-,  if  they  had  not  been  accused  unjustly^  and  condemn- 
td  uncharitably.  For  would  any  runn  say,  that  every  duly 
of  inocality  was  not  practised  in  those  countries,  in  which 
the  Koman  Catholic  religion  was  established  and  profess- 
ed I  Would  it  not  be  an  im.putation  as  palpably  false,  as 
it  would  be  illiberal,  for  any  one  to  utter  such  a  foul,  un- 
Tiici  ited,  and  indiscriminate  calumny  ?  But  tiiis  v/as  always 
Jiie  haughry>  arrogant,  and  illiberal  language  of  persecu- 
tior\^,  which  led  men  to  judge  uncharitably,  and  to  act  with 
bitter  intolerance..  Persecution  always  said,  '  I  knovy  the 
vi'i'^ec^ueaces  of  your  opinio|i  better  thap  you  know  them 


SPEAKER.  175 

yourselves.'  But  the  language  of  toleration  was  always 
amicable,  liberal,  and  just;  it  confessed  its  doubts,  and  ac- 
knowledged its  ignorance.  It  said,  *  Though  I  dislike 
your  opinions,  because  I  think  them  dangerous,  yet,  since 
you  profess  such  opinions,  I  will  not  believe  you  can  think 
such  dangerous  inferences  flow  from  them  which  strike 
my  attention  soibrcibly.'  This  was  truly  a  just  and  legi- 
timate mode  of  ryasoning,  always  less  liable  to  error,  and 
more  adapted  to  human  affairs.  When  we  argued  a  pos- 
teriori^ judging  from  the  fruit  to  the  tree,  from  the  effect 
to  the  cause,  we  were  not  so  subject  to  deviate  into  error 
and  falsehood,  as  when  we  pursued  the  contrary  method 
of  argument.  Yet  persecution  had  always  reasoned  from 
cause  to  effect,  frc-m  opinion  to  action,  which  proved  gc- 
nerallv  erroneous  ;  while  toleration  led  us  invariably  to 
form  just  coiiclusions,  by  judging  from  actions,  and  not 
from  opinions.  Hence  every  polilical  and  religious  test 
was  extremely  absurd  ;  and  the  only  test,  in  his  opinion, 
to  be  adopted,  ought  to  be  a  man's  actions.  He  had  the 
most  perfect  conviction,  that  Test  laws  Irad  nothing  to  do 
%vith  civil  aifairs.  A  view  of  civil  society  throughout  the 
world  must  convince  every  reasonable  person,  that  specu- 
lative opinions  in  religion  had  liitle  or  no  influence  upon 
the  moral  conduct,  without  which  all  religion  were  vain. 
Such  was  the  great  absurdily  of  the  present  Test  laws,  that 
a  man  who  favoured  arbitrary  power  in  his  sentiments; 
^\ho  should  consider  the  abolition  of  trial  by  jury  as  no 
violation  of  liberty,  nor  the  invasion  of  the  freedom,  and 
law  of  .parliitmcnt  any  infraction  of  the  constitution;  yet 
such  a  nvan,  in  defiance  of  the  present  Test  laws,  might  ea- 
sily pave  the  way  to  the  very  first  situations  in  the  state* 
Ihcre  was  no  political  test  to  bind  him  ;  the  custom  of  the 
country  had  destrvcdly  explodetl  such  absurd  rtstraintSc 
No  alarm  was  excited  by  political  speculations;  the  law 
considered  no  man's  opinions  either  hostile  or  injurious  to 
the  state,  until  such  opinions  were  reduced  into  action. 
Then,  and  then  only,  was  th<i  law  armed  with  competent 
authority  to  punish  the  offender* 

"  The  opir.ions  of  another,  in  nvatters  of  religion,  ought 
always  to  be  sui)posed  to  be  founds  d  on  good  intentions. 
As  unjust  would  it  be  to  deprive  a  single  individual 
whose  conduct  had  always  been  meritorious,  of  any  of  his 


176  AMERICAN 

civil  rights,  on  account  of  any  exceptionable  conduct  in 
the  general  body  to  which  he  belonged.  All  merit,  or  de- 
merit, therefore,  in  the  body  of  Dissenters  was  quite  out 
of  the  question  ;  and  the  House  had  only  to  decide  on  ge- 
neral principles.  Indisposed,  however,  as  he  was,  to  al- 
low merit  or  demerit  any  weight  in  the  discussion  of  the 
present  question,  yet  he  could  not  forbear  observing,  that 
the  conduct  of  the  Dissenters  had  not  only  bep n  unexcep- 
tionable, but  also  highly  meritorious.  They  had  deserved 
well  of  their  country.  When  plots  had  been  concerted, 
combinations  formed,  and  insurrections  raised  against  the 
state;  when  the  whole  country  was  in  a  state  of  alarm, 
distraction  and  trouble  ;  when  the  constitution,  both  civil 
and  ecclesiastical,  was  in  immediate  danger  of  subversion; 
when  the  monarch  trembled  for  the  safety  of  his  throne, 
crown,  and  dianitj^  the  Dissenters  instead  of  being  con- 
cerned in  the  dangerous  machinations  forming  against  the 
government,  pioved  themselves,  in  the  hour  of  peril  and 
emergency,  the  firmest  support  of  the  state.  During  the 
rebellions  of  1715  and  1745,  they  cheerfully  had  exposed 
their  persons,  liyes^,  and  property,  in  defence  of  ih/iv  king 
and  country ;  and  by  their  noble  exertions,  our  enemies 
W'ere  defeated,  our  constitution  preserved,  and  the  Bruns- 
wic  family  contmued  in  possession  of  the  throne.  They 
were  then,  as  they  are  now,  incapacitated  from  holding 
commissions,  ci\  il  or  military,  in  the  service  of  their 
country.  Did  they  plead  the  r  incapacity,  or  the  penalties 
to  which  they  were  subject  ?  No — they  freely  drew  their 
swords  ;  they  nobly  transgressed  the  laws  which  proscrib- 
ed them  ;  and  successfully  fought  the  battles  of  our  consti- 
tdlion.  For  this  gallant  behaviour  all  they  ever  obtained 
was  an  act  c;£indemnity — a  pardon  for  doing  their  duty  as 
good  citizens,  in  rescuing  their  country  in  the  hour  of  dan- 
ger and  distress.  Such  were  the  absurdities  of  the  laws 
framed  on  the  monstrous  principles  of  persecution* 


SPEAKER.  177 


Extract  froin  a  Speech  of  Mr.  Fox,  on  the  Affairs  of  Ire- 
land, 1797. 

I  know  there  are  persons  in  the  country  who  suppose 
that  the  prejudices  of  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Dis- 
senters will  prevent  them  from  forming  an  union  ;  but 
how  is  this  effect  likely  to  be  prevented,  when  you  are  de- 
claring every  day  so  many  districts  out  of  the  king's  peace, 
and  in  a  state  of  disturbance  ;  and  instead  of  conciliating 
the  minds  of  the  Catholics,  are  telling  them  that  they  have 
nothing  more  to  expect.  And  now.  Sir,  a  few  words  upon 
the  grievances  of  the  Catholics  and  Dissenters.  I  know 
an  opinion  has  gone  forth,  that  the  Catholics  have  now  no 
substantial  grievances  to  complain  of;  that  the  Presbyte- 
rians have  still  less.  It  is  said  that  the  Catholics  have  had 
ceded  to  them  all  the  privileges  of  the  most  importance  : 
that  they  can  vote  for  members  of  parliament,  and  that 
they  are  not  distinguished  from  the  Protestants  but  by  be- 
ing excluded  from  the  high  offices  of  state,  and  from  be- 
ing members  of  Parliament.  If  this  were  all,  I  should 
still  say  that  they  have  a  right  to  all  the  privilege's  possess- 
ed by  the  Protestants.  Upon  what  principle  ought  they 
to  be  excluded?  On  what  grounds  of  justice  ?  Sir,  upon 
no  grounds  of  justice  ;  the  only  reason,  th;  refore,  must  be 
a  reason  of  policy,  which  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  a  hostile 
mind  against  them  ;  but  let  us  consider  it  in  other  points 
of  view.  Is  it  nothing  to  have  no  share  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  to  be  excluded  from  the  .higher  offices  of  the 
state  \  but  it  is  invidiously  objected  by  the  Government, 
to  the  Catholics  that  it  is  not  civil  liberty  which  they  wish, 
but  it  is  power  and  emolument  which  they  pursue.  To  this 
I  would  answer  for  the  Catholics,  yts:  nor  is  it  any  dis- 
credit that  they  should  be  actuated  by  such  desire.  I 
would  say,  that  civil  liberty  can  have  no  security  without 
political  power.  To  ask  civil  liberty  without  political  poW" 
er,  would  be  to  act  like  weak  men,  and  to  ask  the  posses- 
sion of  a  right  {^.-^i-  the  enjoyment  of  which  they  could  have 
no  security.  I  know  that  distinctions  h.U'e  been  made  be- 
tween civil  and  political  liberty,  and  I  r,dmit  that  it  is  pos- 
sible for  whole  classes,  whole  casts  And  descriptions  of 
men  to  enjoy  the  one  without  possessing  the  ether.    Still, 


178  AMERICAN 

however,  I  assert,  that  it  can  be  only  by  sufferance.   I  ad- 
mit, that  civil  liberty  is  of  a  higher  kind ;  but  this  I  con- 
tend, that  political  power  is  the  only  security  for  the  en- 
joyment of  the  other.     The   Catholics  may  justly  say, 
therefore,  that  it  is  not  this  or  that  concession  that  will  sa- 
tisfy us,  but  give  us  that  which  alone  can  give  us  securi- 
ty for  its  continuance.    It  is  objected  also  that  the  Catho- 
lics are  not  merely  ambitious  of  power,  but  actuated  by 
views  of  private  emolument.     But  if  this  were  true,  is  it 
improper  that  the  Catholics,  contributing  so  largely  to  the 
support  of  Government,  should  be  desirous  to  share  the 
emolument  which  it  bestows,  as  a  compensation  for  what 
they  sacrifice  ?  The  compensation  indeed  is  trifling  :  but 
still,  should  they  in  point  of  right  be  excluded  from  their 
proportion  ?   Yet,    how  strongly  wnll  their   claim  be   felt, 
when  it  is   consider  d  who  are  the  disputants?   Are  the 
C  'tholics  to  be  told  by  a  few  monopolizing  politicians, 
who  engross  all  places,  all  reversions,  all  emoluments,  all 
patronages.     "  Oh,  you  base  Catholics  you  think  of  no- 
thing but  your  private  emolument.     You  perverse  gene- 
ration, who  have  already  been  p-  rmitted  to  vote  for  mem- 
bers of  parliament,  are  you  so  base  as  to  urge  the  dis- 
graceful demand  of  a  share    in  personal  emoluments !" 
The  Catholics  are  men,  and  art   to  be  governed.     The 
expense  of  maintaining  all  governments  must  be  consider- 
able, and  that  of  Ireland  is  certainly  not  a  model  of  eco- 
nomy.    Of  the  emoluments  arising  out  of  the  establish- 
melits  of  government,  the  Catholics  have  a  just  right  to 
participate  ;  and   for  a  small  and  interested  minority  to 
imagine  that  they  can  monopolize  all  these  advantages  to 
themselves,  is  a  pretension  which  will  not  be  admitted  : 
mankind  are  not  to  be  treated  in  this  manner,  and  it  is 
not  now  a-days  that  such  claims  will  pass  current  in  the 
world.     The  loyalty  and  activity  of  the  Catholics  upon 
the  late  attempted  invasion,  is  now  the  theme  of  the  high- 
est paneyric  ;  but  it  is  empty,  unavailing  praise  :  laudatitf 
et  al^et  is  the  situation  of  the  Catholic  loyalty.    The  qua- 
lities Vv'hicch  are  so  much  extolled,  ought  to  be  rewarded 
by   conferring   upon  their   possessors   those   just  claims 
which  are  yet  denied  them,  tfie  total  abolition  of  all  dis- 
tinction :  to  remove  every  mark  by  which  religious  differ- 
ences could  be  known,  is  a  condition  which  a  minority, 


SPEAKER.  179 

one  should  think,  would  be  glad  to  accept  with  a  joy  bor- 
dering on  gratitude.  I  know  that  the  reieaning  of  the  word 
Protestant  is  much  limited  in  its  signification  by  some, 
and  that  the  Presbyterian  Dissenters  do  not  receive  even 
the  name  of  Protestants  ;  still,  however,  I  am  desirous  to 
retain  the  word,  as  I  do  not  exactly  coincide  with  the  zeal- 
ous distinction  of  those  to  whom  I  allude.  What  have  the 
Protestant  Dissenters  to  complain  of?  It  is  said,  they  may 
serve  in  parliament ;  and  as  the  Test  act,  which  here  has 
been  held  so  necessary  to  the  security  of  the  church,  and 
the  defence  of  the  monarchy,  is  no  longer  thought  requi- 
site, they  may  hold  offices  without  any  obstacle  or  diffi- 
culty. JBefore  I  proceed  to  consider  the  situation  of  the 
Protestants,  there  is  one  point  relative  to  the  Catholics 
which  I  ought  to  explain  ;  it  has  been  said  that  the  Catho- 
lics are  entitled  to  vote  for  members  of  parliament,  and 
the  fallacy  of  this  boasted  privilege,  ought  to  be  be  expos- 
ed ;  except  in  the  counties,  the  representation  of  Ireland 
was  in  what  is  here  known  by  the  name  of  Close  Corpora- 
tions. The  animosities  which  formerly  subsisted  are  anx- 
iously kept  up  by  the  Executive  Government,  and  they  fa- 
vour the  determination  to  exclude  the  Catholics  from  the 
corporations,  so  that  their  privilege  is  thus  almost  entirely 
evaded.  They  thus  confer  in  theory  a  power,  which  they 
are  careful  to  defeat  in  practice.  Those  who  esteem  this 
privilege,  then,  must  be  very  fond  of  theories  upon  paper, 
and  very  unconcerned  about  their  practical  effect :  yet 
however  good  theorists  they  may  be  upon  such  principles, 
they  are  not  likely  to  act  in  such  a  manner  as  to  afford 
much  satisfaction,  or  produce  much  benefit  to  mankind. 
The  Presbyterians,  consider  their  grievances  to  consist  in 
the  abuses  of  the  government,  which  they  have  not  means 
to  remedy.  They  wish  for  the  substantial  blessings  of  the 
English  constitution;  they  wish  for  the  political  principles 
on  which  that  constitution  is  founded.  Whoever  imagines 
tliat  a  practical  resemblance  existed  between  the  govern- 
ment of  Ireland  and  the  English  constitution,  would  find 
that  the  Irish  government  is  u  mirror  in  which  the  abuses 
of  this  constitution  are  strongly  reflected.  I  will  not  speak 
of  the  abases  of  which  we  have  been  used  to  complain,  but 
if  I  wer^:  desirous  to  reconcile  any  one  to  the  abuses  of 
the  British  constitution,  it  would  be  by  a  comparison  with 


180  AMERICAN 

those  of  Ireland.  Whatever  may  have  been  thought  oi 
the  plans  of  parliamentary  reform  which  have  been  agitat- 
ed here,  still  it  was  always  admitted  that  the  Heuse  of 
Commons  should  be  at  least  a  virtual  representation  of  the 
people.  It  certainly  was  stating  the  point  of  virtual  re- 
presentation very  high  when  it  was  asserted  in  this  House, 
that  though  all  the  representatives  of  England  were  cho- 
sen by  the  county  of  Middlesex,  it  would  be  no  reason  for 
reform,  so  long  as  such  a  parliament  discharged  its  duty 
as  a  parliament.  But  are  the  people  of  Ireland  unreason- 
able when  they  complain  that  they  have  not  the  advantage 
even  of  virtual  representation  ?  when  they  complain  that 
the  jobbing  system  of  influence  and  patronage,  for  purpo- 
ses of  personal  advantage,  is  an  abuse  that  totally  destroys 
the  spirit  of  their  form  of  government,  and  a  practical 
nuisance  which  cannot  be  endured?  To  suppose  that  a 
large,  industrious,  active,  and  intelligent  body  of  men  can 
be  governed  against  the  principles  they  have  imbibed,  and 
the  prejudices  by  which  they  are  guided,  is  an  idea  which 
history  and  human  nature  prove  to  be  absurd.  What  is 
the  situation  of  affairs  with  respect  to  Ireland?  You  have 
raised  enormous  burdens  both  in  England  and  in  Ireland. 
You  have  produced, great  discontents,  and  you  are  reduc- 
ed to  such  a  point  that  you  must  take  a  decided  part.  In 
fact,  we  now  are  precisely  at  the  point  in  which  we  stood 
in  1774  with  America;  and  the  question  is,  whether  we 
,are  to  attempt  to  retain  Ireland  by  force,  instead  of  endea- 
vouring to  gain  by  concessions,  and  to  conciliate  by  con- 
ferring the  full  and  substantial  blessings  of  a  free  consti- 
tution ?  The  circumstances  in  some  respects  are  different, 
and  it  may  be  discovered  that  the  distance  of  America, 
and  its  population,  extended  ever  an  immense  tract  of 
country,  were  disadvantages  peculiar  to  that  contest.  I 
remember,  however,  that  the  extent  of  the  territory  of  A- 
merica,  was  stated  as  an  advantage,  as  it  would  prevent 
sudden  collections  of  people.  So  favorable  were  circum- 
istanccs  supposed  to  be,  that  an  officer  boasted  that  with  a 
single  company  of  grenadiers,  or  a  single  regiment,  I  do 
not  remember  \vhich,  he  would  march  fro«ii  one  end  of 
America  to  the  other ;  and  though  he  had  been  able  to 
re  I  ize  his  boast, -I  know  not  what  mighty  advantage  it 
could  have  produced.     I  well  remember  that  at  that  pe- 


SPEAKER.  181 

liod  to  which  I  allude,  the  expression  of  the  American 
war,  which  I  was  the  first  in  the  House  to  use,  was  treat- 
ed with  the  utmost  ridicule  ;  and  to  call  some  riots  at  Bos- 
ton by  the  appellation  of  a  war,  was  considered  as  a  great 
absurdity.  Some  may  treat  the  idea  of  a  war  with  Ire- 
land with  the  same  contempt  and  ridicule;  and  I  sincere- 
ly hope  that  experience  will  not  decide  so  triumphantly 
in  my  favour,  as  on  the  former  occasion.  Whenever  I 
see  a  government  desirous  to  decide  by  force  against  the 
will  of  the  majority,  in  these  circumstances  I  see  the 
danger  of  civil  war.  There  is  this  difference  now  in  our 
situation,  that  the  state  of  our  finances  may  deter  us  from 
encountering  such  hazardous  enterprizes.  In  the  other 
case  we  were  wealthy  and  prosperous.  Stultitiam  patiun- 
tiir  opes  might  then  be  said  of  our  situation  ;  but  now  the 
critical  state  of  our  affairs,  and  the  embarrassed  condition 
of  our  finances,  forbade  that  prodigality  of  resource,  and 
similar  dangers  of  experiment.  In  circumstances  like 
the  present,  I  believe  no  man  who  was  in  His  Majesty's 
councils  at  the  beginning  of  the  American  war,  would 
have  been  mad  enough  to  hn'e  embarked  in  the  contest. 
I  hope  and  trust  that  the  discontents  which  threaten  thq 
separation  of  Ireland,  will  be  dissipated  without  the  ne-» 
cessity  of  a  war.  But  now  the  extremity  of  rigor  has 
been  tried,  the  severity  of  despotism  has  been  let  loose 
and  the  government  is  driven  to  that  state  when  the  laws 
are  not  to  be  -put  in  execution,  but  to  be  superseded.  Ire- 
land is  precisely  in  that  state  whicji  a  person  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  subject,  defined  to  be  despotism, 
•••  whtre  the  executive  power  is  every  thing,  and  the 
rights  of  the  people  nothing."  At  the  beginning  of  the 
American  contest,  the  province  of  Massachusett's  Bay 
was  disarmed  ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  if  this  province 
had  been  left  armed,  the  separation  of  the  American  co- 
ionics  would  have  been  accelerated.  The  people  of  Ire- 
land are  now  in  that  state  when  if  th  y  should  choose  to 
resist,  a  contest  must  ensue,  the  issue  of  which  must  be 
doubtful.  In  the  commencement  of  the  American  war 
I  had  made  such  an  observation  of  the  disposition  of  the 
regular  governments  of  Europe,  that  I  was  convinced 
France  would  aid  America.  In  the  present  there  can  be 
no  room  for  doubt  that  the  French  would  make  it  a  chief 

R 


182  AMERICAN 

point  of  their  policy  to  give  assistance  to  the  insurgents. 
But  suppose  you  were  to  succeed  in  disarming  the  whole 
of  the  north  of  Ireland,  you  must  keep  them  in  subjec- 
tion by  force.  If  you  do  not  allay  their  discontents,  there 
is  no  way  but  force  to  keep  them  in  obedience.  Can  you 
convince  them  by  the  musquet  that  their  principles  are 
false  ?  Can  you  prove  to  them  by  the  bayonet  that  their 
pretensions  are  unjust?  Can  you  demonstrate  to  them  by 
martial  law  that  they  enjoy  the  blessings  of  a  free  consti- 
tution ?  No :  it  is  said,  but  they  may  be  deterred  from 
the  prosecution  of  the  objects  which  you  have  determin- 
ed to  refuse.  But  on  what  history  is  this  founded  ? — on 
the  history  of  Ireland  itself?  No  ;  for  the  history  of  Ire- 
land proves  that,  though  repeatedly  subdued,  it  could  not 
be  kept  in  awe  by  force  ;  and  the  late  examples  will  prove 
the  effect  which  severity  may  be  expected  to  produce. 
The  character  of  the  people  who  inhabit  the  north  uf  Ire- 
land has  been  severely  stigmatized.  For  my  own  part, 
it  is  not  my  habit  to  admit  a  fixed  dislike  against  any  bo- 
bies  of  men,  nor  do  I  see  any  thing  in  these  to  justify 
such  a  dislike.  But  it  is  said,  these  men  are  of  the  old 
leaven.  They  are,  indeed  of  the  old  leaven  that  rescued 
the  country  from  the  tyranny  of  Charles  the  first,  and 
James  the  second  ;  they  are  of  that  leuven  which  assert- 
jcd  and  defended  the  principles  of  liberty  ;  they  are  of  that 
leaven  which  fermented,  and  kneaded  together,  the  free- 
dom of  the  British  constitution.  If  these  principles  were 
carried  to  excess,  it  is  an  excess  to  which  I  am  more  par- 
tial than  to  the  opposite  extreme.  The  opposition  they 
have  suffered  is  some  apology.  I  am  told  that  the  mode 
riow  adopted  is  this — to  declare  a  country  out  of  the  kmg's 
,peace,  it  is  necessary  that  there  should  be  a  certificate  from 
the  magistrates.  Many  of  the  magistrates  are  not  natives 
of  Ireland,  or  resident  there,  but  Englishmen  and  officers 
of  the  Fencible  corps.  Are  the  people  to  be  told  that 
these  magistrates  are  acting  only  in  a  civil  capacity?  But 
have  they  not  been  provoked  to  violence  ?  Several  of  the 
principal  people  of  Belfast  were  taken  up.  The  law  is  in 
that  state,  that  men  may  be  kept  in  prison  without  trial ; 
is  that  any  iiiierence  of  their  guilt  ?  I  have  seen  the  wan- 
ton prosecutions  of  goverpment  in  this  country,  which  ju- 
tie,s  happily  checked.     I  have  seen  too  much  of  these  prQ- 


SPEAKER.  183 

seditions  to  make  me  draw  an  inference  of  guilt  from  the 
circumstance  of  a  man's  being  taken'  up.  I  have  heard  in 
Ireland  of  men  being  ignominiously  arrested  and  carried 
to  Dublin,  who,  in  their  trials  were  found  to  be  perfectiv" 
innocent,  and  ought  no^  to  have  been  suspected.  The 
people  of  the  north  attached  to  these  men,  were  determin- 
ed that  they  should  not  suffer  in  their  propcrtv.  The 
people  worked  for  nothing  ;  they  reaped  their  harvests,  oa 
purpose  to  shew  either  their  good- will  to  the  parties,  or 
their  detestation  poss'ibly  of  the  conduct  of  Government. 
This,  however,  was  construed  to  be  a  heinous'  otT^nce  j  the 
people  were  dispersed  by  the  military  ;  and  when  some 
were  killed,  the  attending  the  bodies  to  the  grave  was 
deemed  criminal,  and  the  persons  assisting  were  dispers- 
ed, as  if  they  were  doing  an  act  against  the  state.  That 
these  things  will  goad  who  can  doubt?  Is  it  not  possible 
that  they  who  prefer  monarchy  may  find  the  exercise  of  it 
to  be  so  bad,  as  almost  to  doubt  the  excellence  of  monar- 
chical government  ?  But  should  the  people  be  even  totally 
subdued,  can  you  do  otherwise  than  keep  up  a  large  mili- 
tary force  ?  But  suppose  the  people  submit — I  put  the 
case  in  that  way — can  you  trust  to  such  a  situation?  Wiil 
their  submission  to  laws  which  they  detest,  hist  longer 
than  your  power  lasts,  and  their  impotency  ?  Will  you  con- 
tinue to  keep  up  your  force  ?  During  the  war,  I  believe 
you  will  ;  but  can  Ireland  afford  to  maintain  it  during 
peace  ?  Is  it  the  way  to  persuade  the  Catholics  to  assist 
you,  to  refuse  to  accord  to  their  demands  ?  I  have  heard 
that  a  direct  application  has  been  made,  nor  from  the  Ca- 
tholic peasantry,  but  from  the  Catholic  nobilitv,  a  strong- 
and  urgent  application  to  the  government  to  grant  the  rt- 
maindtr  of  their  demands.  I  have  been  told,  what  cer- 
tainly it  was  unnecessary  to  tell  me,  that  these  applic.itions 
have  been  unsuccessful.  Refuse  all  these  demands— de- 
termine to  govern  Ireland  by  military  force — risk  a  civil 
war, — which  of  these  evils  is  the  worst  I  know  not — I^it 
it  may  be  said,  what  is  to  be  done  r  My  general  principle 
is  to  restore  peace  on  principles  of  peace,  and  to  make 
concession  on  principles  of  concession.  I  wish  members 
to  read  that  celebrated  speech  of  Mr.  Burke  on  the  sub- 
ject of  such  concessions  ;  let  them  read  that  beautiful  dis- 
play of  eloquence,  and  at  the  same  time  sound  reasoning, 


i84,  AMERICAN 

and  they  Will  find  in  that  speech  all  those  principles  which 
it  is  my  wish  to  have  adopted.  *  Liberty,  (says  Mr. 
Burke  in  a  passage  of  some  other  part  of  his  work,)  is  any 
practiciil  purpose,  is  that  which  the  people  think  soj  you 
must  give  them  that  government  which  they  wish;  you  must 
give  them  the  British  constitution  in  its  substance  and  spirit.' 
Apply  this  to  Ireland^  make  it  such  a  government  as  the  peo- 
ple shall  conceive  to  be  a  free  one.  But,  it  is  said,  it  is  not 
possible  to  satisfy  ail  persons.  It  may  be  so  ;  but  is  there 
one  concession  that  could  be  made  to  the  Catholics  which 
the  people  in  the  north  of  Ireland  could  object  to  ?  Is 
there  any  p;rievance  which  could  be  remedied  in  the 
north,  to  which  the  Catholics  w^ould  object  ?  They  have  no 
inconsistent  pretensions,  no  clashing  interests. — The  con- 
cessions to  be  made  to  the  different  parties  are  not  incon- 
sistent ;  the  one  party  will  not  repine  at  the  satisfaction 
which  the  other  obtains.  Who  then  would  be  dissatisfied 
by  such  concessions  ?  Not  the  aristocracy,  for  1  will  not 
call  it  by  so  respectable  a  name  ;  and  is  that  miserable 
monopolizing  minority  to  be  put  in  the  balance  with  the 
preservation  of  the  empire  and  the  happiness  of  a  whole 
people  ?  The  Irish  wish  to  have  a  reform  upon  an  extend- 
ed scale  ;  they  desire  an  extension  of  popular  rights  ;  but 
mav  there  rot  be  a  conciliation  and  compromise  ?  In  that 
declaration  of  the  people  of  Belfast,  1  see  that  they  do 
most  distinctly  state,  that  they  conceive  all  the  benefits  of 
fref  dom  may  be  enjoyed  under  a  government  of  King, 
Lords,  and  Commons. 

<^  What  then  is  it  that  the  people  wish  for  ?  They  wish 
for  a  different  constitution  in  the  House  of  Commons;  I 
think  they  are  right.  They  desire  a  diminution  of  patron- 
age, and  they  may  go  to  the  extraordinnry  length  of  say- 
ing, that  it  is  not  right  to  have  a  church  in  all-  its  splendor, 
which  is  applicable  only  to  a  small  part  of  the  inhabitants. 
But  do  not  ihtjee  things  admit  of  moderate  discussion,  and 
satisfactory  compromise  ?  What  they  ask  is  a  constitution 
sach  as  Great  Britain  has  according  to  some,  and  such  as 
she  ought  to  have  according  to  others, — a  goverment 
which  shall  virtually  express  the  will  of  the  people  ;  and 
if  in  treating  with  them  you  should  fail — you  will  then 
have  to  resort  to  violent  measures^  you  will  then  have  to 
divide  the  people,  as  Mr.  Bu?.s.e  said,  not  to  divide  the 


SPEAKER.  185 

people  of  Massachusetts  from  the  people  of  Virginia — ^not 
to  divide  Boston  from  Carolina — not,  I  say,  to  divide 
Ulster  from  Connaught,  and  Leinster  from  Munster;  but 
you  will  divide  the  people  who  wish  for  the  constitution 
from  those  who  wish  to  destroy  it.  These  are  the  divi- 
sions which  I  wish  for.  But  conciliation,  it  may  be  said, 
will  not  do — if  it  will  not,  then  only  may  we  have  recourse 
to  arms.  Is  there  a  worse  period  for  the  country  in  point 
of  credit  and  resources  ^  I  know  not,  but  I  am  sure,  that 
we  cannot  do  worse,  than  at  the  end  of  one  war,  adopt 
measures  to  bring  on  another.  I  would  therefore  concede ; 
and  if  I  found  I  had  not  conceded  enough,  I  would  con- 
cede more.  I  know  of  no  way  of  governing  mankind  but 
by  conciliating  them,  and,  according  to  the  forcible  way 
which  the  Irish  have  of  expressing  their  meaning.  I  know 
of  no  mode  of  governing  the  people,  but  by  letting  them 
have  their  own  way.  And  what  shall  we  lose  by  it  ?  If 
Ireland  is  governed  by  conceding  to  all  her  ways  and  wish- 
es, will  she  be  less  useful  to  Great  Britain :  What  is  she 
now?  little  more  than  a  diversion  for  the  army.— If  you 
keep  Ireland  by  force  now,  what  must  you  do  in  all  future 
wars?  You  must  in  the  ftrst  place  secure  her  from  insur- 
rection. I  will  adopt  therefore  the  Irish  expression,  and 
say,  that  you  can  only  govern  Ireland  by  letting  her  have 
her  own  way.  The  consequences  of  a  war  with  Ireland, 
are  dreadful  to  contemplate;  public  horrors  would  be  so 
increased  by  the  laceration  of  private  feelings,  as  to  spread 
universal  misery  through  both  countries  ;  the  connection 
is  so  interwoven  between  the  individuals  of  both  coun- 
tries ;  that  no  rupture  can  happen  without  wounding  the 
most  t^der  frit;nd&hips  and  the  most  sacred  ties.  Rigour 
has  already  been  attempted ;  let  concession  and  concilia- 
tion then  be  tried  before  the  last  appeal  is  hazarded.  My 
wish  is,  that  the  whole  people  of  Ireland  should  have  the 
same  principles,  the  same  system,  the  same  operation  of 
government,  and  thou;;h  it  may  be  a  subordinate  consider 
ration,  that  all  classes  should  have  an  equal  chance  of  emo- 
lument ;  in  other  words,  I  would  have  the  whole  Irish  go- 
vernment regulated  by  Irish  notions,  and  Irish  prejudices^ 
and  I  firmly  believe,  according  to  another  Irish  expression, 
the  more  she  is  under  Irish  governmenti  the  more  will  she 
he  bound  to  English  interests. 

R2 


186  AMERICAx\ 


Mr.  Burke^  on  Mr*  Fox's  India  Bill. 

The  several  irruptions  of  Arabs,  Tartars,  and  Persians 
into  India  were,  for  the  greater  part,  ferocious  and  bloody 
and  wasteful  in  the  extreme  :  our  entrance  into  the  domi- 
nion of  that  country,  was  as  generally  with  small  compa- 
rative effusion  of  blood,  being  introduced  by  various  frauds 
and  delusions,  and  by  taking  advantage  of  the  incurable, 
blind,  and  senseless  animosity,  which  the  several  country 
powers  bear  towards  each  other,  rather  than  by  open 
force.  But  the  difference  in  favour  of  the  first  conquer- 
ors is  this  ;  the  Asiatic  conquerors  very  soon  abated  of 
their  ferocity,  because  they  made  the  conquered  country 
tht'ir  own.  They  rose  or  fell  with  the  rise  or  fall  of  the 
territory  they  lived  in.  Fathers  there  deposited  the  hopes 
of  their  posterity,  and  children  there  beheld  the  monu- 
ments of  their  fathers.  Here  their  lot  was  finally  cast,  and 
it  is  the  natural  wish  of  all,  that  their  lot  should  not  be 
cast  in  a  bad  land.  Poverty,  sterility,  and  desolation,  are 
not  a  recreating  prospect  to  the  eye  of  man,  and  there  are 
very  few  who  can  bear  to  grow  pld  among  the  curses  of  a 
whole  pt  opie.  If  their  passion  or  their  avarice  drove  the 
Tartar  lords  to  acts  of  rapacity  or  tyranny,  there  was  time 
enoi.gh,  I  vtn  in  the  short  life  of  man,  to  bring  round  the 
ill  effects  oi  in  abuse  of  power  upon  the  pov/er  itself.  If 
hoards  verc  mvid.  by  violence,  and  tyranny,  they  were 
still  domestit  hoards  ;  and  domestic  profusion^  or  the  ra- 
pine of  a  mor-  powerful  and  prodigal  hand,  restored  them 
to  the  people.  With  many  disorders,  and  with  few  poli- 
tic I  chtcks  upon  power,  nature  had  still  fair  pl«y  ;  the 
sources  of  acquisition  were  not  dried  up,  and  therefore 
the  trade,  the  manufactures,  and  the  commerce  of  the 
country  flourished.  Even  avarice  and  usury  itself,  ope- 
rated b(;th  for  the  preservation  and  the  employment  of  na- 
tional wealth.  The  husbandman  and  manufacturer  paid 
heavy  interest,  but  then  they  augmented  the  fund  from 
whtnce  they  were  again  to  borrow.  Their  resources 
were  dearly  bought,  but  they  were  sure,  and  the  general 
stock  ol  the  community  gr':W  by  the  general  effort. 

£ut  undtr  tht  English  government  all  this  order  is  re- 
vers'.d.    The  Tartar  invasion  was  mischievous  5  but  it  is 


SPEAKER,  1ST 

our  protection  that  destroys  India.  It  was  their  enmity, 
but  it  is  our  friendship  :  our  conquest  there,  after  twenty 
years,  is  as  crude  as  it  was  the  first  day.  The  natives 
scarcely  know  what  is  to  see  the  grey  head  of  an  English- 
man. Young  men  (boys  almost)  govern  there  without 
society,  and  without  sympathy  with  the  natives.  They  have 
no  more  social  habits  with  the  people,  than  if  they  still  re- 
sided in  England,  nor  indeed  any  species  of  intercourse 
.but  that  which  is  necessary  to  making  a  sudden  fortune 
with  a  view  to  a  remote  settlement.  Animated  with  all 
the  avarice  of  age,  and  all  the  impetuosity  of  youth,  they 
roll  in  one  after  another,  wave  after  wave,  and  there  is  no- 
thing before  the  eyes  of  the  natives  but  an  endless,  hope- 
less prospect  of  new  flights  of  birds  of  prey  and  passage, 
with  appetites  continually  renewing  for  a  food  that  is  con- 
tinu.illy  wasting.  Every  rupee  of  profit  made  by  an  En- 
glishman is  lost  for  ever  to  India.  With  us  are  no  retri- 
butory  superstitions,  by  which  a  foundation  of  charity 
compensati.  s,  through  ages,  to  the  poor,  for  the  rapine  and 
injustice  of  a  day.  With  us  no  pride  erects  stately  monu- 
ments which  repair  the  mischiefs  which  pride  had  produc- 
ed, and  which  adorn  a  cour/try  out  of  its  own  spoils,  Eng- 
land has  erected  no  churches,  no  hospital,  no  palaces,  no 
schools.  England  has  built  no  bridges,  made  no  high 
ro::ds,  cut  no  navigations,  dug  out  no  reservoirs.  Every 
other  conqueror  of  every  other  description  has  left  some 
monument,  either  of  state  or  beneficence,  behind  him. 
Were  we  to  be  driven  out  of  India  this  day,  nothing  would 
remain  to  tell  that  it  had  been  possessed,  during  the  inglo- 
rious period  of  our  dominion,  by  any  thing  better  than,  the 
ouran  outang,  or  the  tiger. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  boys  we  send  to  India,  worse 
than  the  bo)  s  whom  we  are  whipping  at  school,  or  that 
we  see  trailing  a  pike  or  bending  over  a  desk  at  home. 
Eut  as  P^nglish  youth  in  India  drink  the  intoxicating 
draught  of  authority  and  dominion  before  their  heads  are 
able  to  bear  it,  and  as  they  are  full  grown  in  fortune 
long  bef(jre  they  are  ripe  in  principle,  neither  nature  nor 
reason  have  any  opportunity  to  exert  themselves  for  re- 
medy of  the  excesses  of  their  premature  power.  The 
consequences  of  their  conduct,  which  in  good  minds, 
(and  many  of  theirs  are  probably  such)  might  produce 


188  AMERICAN 

penitence  or  amendment,  are  unable  to  pursue  the  ra- 
pidity of  their  flight.  Their  prey  is  lodged  in  England^ 
and  the  cries  of  India  are  given  to  seas  and  winds,  to 
be  blown  about  in  every  breaking  up  of  the  monsoon, 
over  a  remote  and  unhearing  ocean.  In  India  all  the. 
vices  operate  by  which  sudden  fortune  is  acquired  ;  in 
England  are  often  displayed,  by  the  same  persons,  the 
virtues  which  dispense  hereditary  wealth.  Arrived  in  j 
England,  the  destroyers  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  a  jl 
whole  kingdom,  will  find  the  best  company  in  this  n'a-  « 
ticn,  at  a  board  of  elegance  and  hospitality.  Here  the 
manufacturer  and  husbandman  will  bless  the  just  and 
punctual  hand,  that  in  India  has  torn  the  cloth  from 
the  loom,  or  wrested  the  scanty  portion  of  rice  and  salt 
from  the  peasant  of  Bengal,  or  wrung  from  him  the  very 
opium  in  which  he  forgot  his  oppressions,  and  his  op- 
pressor. They  marry  into  your  families,  they  enter  into 
your  senate,  they  ease  your  estates  by  loans,  they  raise 
their  value  by  demand,  they  cherish  and  protect  your 
relations  which  lie  heavy  on  your  patronnge  ;  and  there 
is  scarcely  a  house  in  the  kingdom  that  does  not  feel 
some  concern  and  interest,  that  makes  all  reform  of 
our  eastern  government  appear  officious  and  disgusting, 
and  on  the  whole  a  most  discouraging  attempt.  In 
such  an  attempt  you  hurt  those  who  are  able  to  return 
kindness  or  to  resent  injury.  If  you  succeed,  you  save 
those  who  cannot  so  much  as  give  you  thanks.  All 
these  things  shew  the  difficulty  of  the  work  we  have  on 
hand :  but  they  shew  its  necessitv  too.  Our  Indian 
government  is  in  its  best  state  a  grievance  ;  it  is  neces- 
sary that  the  correctives  should  be  uncommonly  vigo- 
rous, and  the  work  of  men  sanguine,  warm,  and  even 
impassioned  in  the  cause.  But  it  is  an  arduous  thing  to 
plead  against  abuses  of  a  power  which  originates  from 
our  own  country,  and  affects  those  whom  we  are  used 
to  consider  as  strangers. 


SPEAKER.  189 


Mr.  Burke's  EuJoghtm  oti  Mr.  Fox^  bevig  the  conclusion 
of  his  Speech  on  Mr,  Fox^s  India  Bill, 

Having  done  my  duty  to  the  bill,  let  me  say  a  word  to 
the  author.  I  should  leave  him  to  his  own  noble  sentiments, 
if  the  unworthy  and  illiberal  language  with  which  he  has 
been  treated,  beyond  all  example  of  parliamentary  liberty, 
did  not  make  a  few  words  necessary  ;  not  so  much  in  jus- 
tice to  him,  as  to  my  own  feelings.  I  must  say  then,  that 
it  will  be  a  distinction  honorable  to  the  age,  that  the  res« 
cue  of  the  greatest  number  of  the  human  race  that  ever 
were  so  grievously  oppressed,  from  the  greatest  tyranny 
that  was  ever  exercised,  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  abihties 
and  dispositions  equal  to  the  task  ;  that  it  has  fallen  to  one 
who  has  the  enlargement  to  comprehend,  the  spirit  to  un- 
dertake, and  the  eloquence  to  support,  so  great  a  measure 
of  hazardous  benevolence.  His  spirit  is  not  owing  to  liis 
ignorance  of  the  state  of  men  and  things ;  he  well  knows 
%vhat  snares  are  spread  about  his  path,  from  personal  ani- 
mosity, from  court  intrigues,  and  possibly  from  popular 
delusion.  But  he  has  put  to  hazard  his  ease,  his  security, 
his  interest,  his  power,  even  his  darling  popularity,  for  the 
benefit  of  a  people  whom  he  has  never  seen.  This  is  the 
road  that  all  heroes  have  trod  before  him.  He  is  traduc- 
ed and  abused  for  his  supposed  motives.  He  will  remem- 
ber, that  obloquy  is  a  necessary  ingredient  in  the  compo- 
sition of  all  true  glory  :  he  will  remember,  that  it  was  not 
only  in  the  Roman  customs,  but  it  is  in  the  nature  and 
constitution  of  things,  that  calumny  and  abuse  are  essen- 
tial parts  of  triumph.  These  thoughts  will  support  a  mind^ 
which  only  exists  for  honor,  under  the  burthen  of  tempo- 
rary reproach.  He  is  doing  indeed  a  great  good  ;  such 
as  rarely  falls  to  the  lot,  and  almost  as  rarely  coincides 
with  the  desirt  s,  of  any  man,  I^et  him  use  his  time.  Let 
him  give  the  whole  length  of  the  reins  to  his  benevolence. 
He  is  now  on  a  great  eminence,  where  the  eyes  of  man- 
kind are  turned  to  him.  He  may  live  long,  he  may  do 
much.  But  here  is  the  summit.  He  never  can  exceed 
what  he  does  this  day. 

He  has  f;  ults ;  hut  they  are  faults  that,  though  they  may 
in  a  small  degree  tarnish  the  lustre,  and  souittiiues  iui- 


190  AMERICAN 

pede  the  march  of  his  abilities,  having  nothing  in  thenT  to 
extinguish  the  fire  of  great  virtues.  In  those  faults,  there 
is  no  mixture  of  deceit,  of  hypocrisj^  of  pride,  of  feroci- 
ty, of  complexional  despotism,  or  want  of  feeling  for  the 
distresses  of  mankind.  His  are  faults  which  might  exist 
in  a  descendant  of  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  as  they 
did  exist  in  that  father  of  his  country.  Henry  the  Fourth 
wished  that  he  might  live  to  see  a  fowl  in  the  pot  of  eve- 
ry peasant  in  his  kingdom.  That  sentiment  of  homely 
benevolence  was  worth  all  the  splendid  sayings  that  are 
recorded  of  kings.  But  he  wished  perhaps  for  more  than 
could  be  obtained,  and  the  goodness  of  the  man  exceeded 
the  power  of  the  king.  But  this  gentleman,  a  subject, 
may  this  day  say  this  at  least,  with  truth,  that  he  secures 
the  rice  in  his  pot  to  every  man  in  India.  A  poet  of  an- 
tiquity thought  it  one  of  the  first  distinctions  to  a  prince 
■whom  he  meant  to  celebrate,  that  through  a  long  succes- 
sion of  generations,  he  had  been  the  progenitor  of  an  able 
and  virtuous  citizen,  who  by  force  of  the  arts  of  peace, 
had  corrected  governments  of  oppression,  and  suppressed 
wars  of  rapine. 

Indole  proh  quanta  juven is,  quantumqne  daturiis 
Aiisonise  populis,  ventura  in  sjecula  civem.- 
llle  super  Gangem,  super  exauditus  et  Indos, 
Jmplebit  terras  voce  ;  et  fVirialia  belia 
Fulmine  compescitling'ux.- 

This  was  what  was  said  of  the  predecessor  of  the  only  per- 
son to  whose  eloquence  it  does  not  wrong  that  of  the  mo- 
ver of  this  bill  to  be  compared.  But  the  Ganges  and  the 
Indus  are  the  patrimony  of  the  fame  of  my  honorable 
friend,  and  not  of  Cicero.  I  confess,  I  anticipate  with  joy, 
the  reward  of  those,  whose  uhole  consequence,  power, 
and  authority,  exist  only  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  ;  and 
I  carry  my  mind  to  all  the  people,  and  all  the  names  and 
descriptions,  that,  relieved  by  this  bill,  will  bless  the  la- 
bours of  this  parliament,  and  the  confidence  Vvhich  the  best 
house  of  commons  has  given  to  him  who  the  best  deserves 
it.  The  little  cavils  of  party  will  not  be  heard,  where 
freedom  and  happiness  will  be  felt.  There  is  not  a  tongue, 
a  nation,  or  religioain  India,  whichvvill  not  bless  the  pre- 
siding care  and  mai:ily  beneficence  of  this  house,  and  of 


SPEAKER.  191 

h.v.r)  who  proposes  to  you  this  great  work.  Your  names 
'vv'ill  never  be  separated  before  the  throne  of  the  Divine 
Goodness,  in  whatever  language,  or  with  whatever  rites, 
pardon  is  asked  for  sin,  and  reward  for  those  who  imitate 
the  Godhead  in  his  universal  bounty  to  his  creatures. 
These  honors  you  deserve,  and  they  will  surely  be  paid, 
when  all  the  jargon  of  influence,  and  party,  and  patronage, 
are  swept  into  oblivion. 

I  have  spoken  what  I  think,  and  what  I  feel,  of  the  mo- 
ver of  this  bill.  An  honorable  friend  of  mine,  speaking 
of  his  merits,  w^as  charged  with  having  made  a  studied 
panegyric.  I  don't  know  what  his  vv^as.  IVIine,  I  am 
sure,  is  a  studied  panegyric  ;  the  fruit  of  much  medita- 
tion ;  the  result  of  the  observation  of  near  twenty  years* 
For  my  own  part,  I  am  happy  that  I  have  lived  to  see  this 
day  ;  I  feel  myself  overpaid  for  the  labours  of  eighteen 
years,  when,  at  this  late  period,  I  am  able  to  take  my  share, 
by  one  humble  vote,  in  destroying  a  tyranny  that  exists  to 
the  disgrace  of  tliis  nation,  and  the  destruction  of  so  large 
a  part  of  the  human  species. 


Introduclio7i  to  a  Speech  of  Mr,  Fox,  on  the  Goveriiment  of 
India  m  1783. 

"  The  honorable  gentleman  who  opened  the  debate  [Mr. 
Powis]  first  demands  my  attention  ;  not  indeed  for  the  wis- 
dom of  the  observations  which  fell  from  him  this  night 
(though  he  is  acute  and  judicious  on  most  occasions)  but 
from  the  natural  weight  of  all  such  characters  in  this  coun- 
try, the  aggregate  of  w  horn  should,  in  my  opinion,  always 
decide  upon  public  measures  ;  but  his  ingenuity  was  never, 
I  think,  more  effectually  exerted,  upon  more  mistaken 
principles,  and  more  inconsistent  with  the  common  tenor 
of  his  conduct,  than  in  this  debate. 

"  He  charges  me  with  abandoning  that  cause,  which, 
he  says,  in  terms  of  flattery,  I  had  once  so  successfully  as- 
serted. I  tell  him,  in  reply,  that  if  he  were  to  search  the 
history  of  my  life,  he  would  find  that  the  period  of  it,  in 
which  I  struggled  most  for  the  real,  substantial  cause  cf 
liberty,  is  this  very  moment  that  I  am  addressing  you. 
iteedom,  according  to  my  conception  of  it,  consists  ia  the 


193  AMERICAN 

safe  and  sacred  possession  of  a  man's  property,  governed 
by  laws  defined  and  certain ;  with  many  personal  privileges, 
natural,  civil,  and  religious,  which  he  cannot  surrender 
without  ruin  to  himself;  and  of  which  to  be  deprived  by 
any  other  power,  is  despotism.  This  bill,  instead  of  sub- 
verting, is  destined  to  stabilitate  these  principles ;  instead 
of  narrowing  the  basis  of  freedom,  it  tends  to  enlarge  it ; 
instead  of  suppressing,  its  object  is  to  infuse  and  circulate 
the  spirit  of  liberty. 

"  What  is  the  most  odious  species  of  tyranny  ?  Pre- 
cisely that  which  this  bill  is  meant  to  annihilate.  That  a 
handful  of  men,  free  themselves,  should  execute  the  most 
base  and  abominable  despotism  over  millions  of  their  fel- 
low creatures  ;  that  innocence  should  be  the  victim  of  op- 
pression ;  that  industry  should  toil  for  rapine  ;  that  the 
harmless  laborer  should  sweat,  not  for  his  own  benefit,  but 
for  the  luxury  and  rapacity  of  tyrannic  depredation  ;  .in  a 
word,  that  thirty  millions  of  men,  gifted  by  Providence 
with  the  ordinary  endowments  of  humanity,  should  groan 
under  a  system  of  despotism,  unmatched  in  all  the  histo- 
ries of  the  world. 

"  What  is  the  end  of  all  Government  ?  Certainly  the 
happiness  of  the  governed.  Others  may  hold  other  opi- 
nions ;  but  this  is  mine,  and  I  proclaim  it.  What  are  we 
to  think  of  a  government,  whose  good  fortune  is  supposed 
to  spring  from  the  calamities  of  its  subjects ;  whose  ag- 
grandizement grows  out  of  the  miseries  of  mankind  ! 
This  is  the  kind  of  government  exercised  under  the  East 
India  Company  upon  the  natives  of  Indostan ;  and  the 
subversion  of  that  infamous  government  is  the  main  ob- 
ject of  the  Bill  in  question.  But  in  the  progress  of  ac- 
complishing this  end,  it  is  objected  that  the  charter  of  the 
company,  should  not  be  violated  ;  and  upon  this  point.  Sir, 
I  shall  deliver  my  opinion  without  disguise.  A  charter 
is  a  trust. to  one  or  more  persons  for  some  given  benefit. 
If  this  trust  be  abused ;  if  the  benefit  be  not  obtained, 
and  that  its  failure  arises  from  palpable  guilt  (or  what,  in 
this  case,  is  full  as  bad)  from  palpable  ignorance  or  mis- 
management ;  will  any  man  gravely  say,  that  trust  should 
not  be  resumed,  and  delivered  to  other  hands  ;  more  espe- 
cially in  the  case  of  the  East  India  Company,  whose  man- 
ner of  executing  this  trust,  whose  laxity  and  languor  pro- 


SPEAKER.  193 

diiced,  and  tend  to  produce,  consequences  diametrically 
opposite  to  the  ends  of  confiding  that  trust,  and  of  the  in- 
stitution for  which  it  was  granted  !  I  beg  of  gentlemen 
to  be  aware  of  the  lengths  to  which  their  arguments  upon 
the  intangibility  of  this  charter  may  be  carried.  Every 
syllable  virtually  impeaches  the  establishment  by  which 
we  sit  in  this  house,  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  freedom, 
and  of  every  other  blessing  of  our  government.  These 
kind  of  arguments  are  batteries  against  the  main  pillar  of 
the  British  constitution.  Some  men  are  consistent  with 
their  own  private  opinions,  and  discover  the  inheritance 
of  family  maxims,  when  they  question  the  principles  of 
the  Revolution ;  but  I  have  no  scruple  in  subscribing  to 
the  articles  of  that  creed  which  produced  it.  Sovereigns 
are  sacred,  and  reverence  is  due  to  every  king :  yet,  with 
all  my  attachments  to  the  person  of  a  first  magistrate,  had 
i  lived  in  the  reign  of  James  the  Second,  I  should  most 
certainly  have  contributed  my  efforts,  and  borne  part  in 
those  illustrious  struggles,  which  vindicated  an  empire  from 
hereditary  servitude,  and  recorded  this  valuable  doctrine 
that  *  trust  abused  was  revocable, "* 

"  No  man  will  tell  me,  that  a  trust  to  a  company  of  mer- 
chants stands  upon  the  solemn  and  sanctified  ground  bv 
which  a  trust  is  committed  to  a  monarch  ;  and  I  am  at  a 
loss  to  reconcile  the  conduct  of  men,  who  approve  that 
resumption  of  violated  trust,  which  rescued  and  re-esta- 
blished our  unparalleled  and  admirable  constitution,  with 
a  thousand  valuable  improvements  and  advantages,  at  the 
Revolution  ;  and  who,  at  this  moment,  rise  up  the  cham- 
pions of  the  East-India  Company's  charter,  although  the 
incapacity  and  incompetence  of 'that  Company  to  a  due 
and  adequate  discharge  of  the  trust  deposited  in  them  by 
charter,  are  themes  of  ridicule  and  contempt  to  all  the 
world  J  and  although,  in  consequence  of  their  mismanage- 
ment, connivance,  and  imbecility,  combined  with  the  wick- 
edness of  their  servants,  the  very  name  of  an  Englishman 
is  detested,  even  to  a  proverb,  through  all  Asia ;  .,;nd  the 
national  character  is  become  degraded  and  dishunored 
To  rescue  that  name  from  odium,  and  redeem  this  cha- 
racter from  disgrace,  are  some  of  the  objects  of  the  pre- 
sent bill  J  and  gentlemen  should  indeed  gravely  weigh 


19**  AMERICAN 

their  opposition  to  a  measure,  which,  with  a  thousand 
other  points,  not  less  valuable,  aims  at  the  attainment  of 
these  objects. 


Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Mr.  Burke^  on  the  Kahoh  of  Ar- 
cofs  debts^  February  28th,  1785. 

When  at  length  Hyder  Ali  found  that  he  had  to  do  with 
men  who  either  would  sign  no  convention,  or  whom  no 
treaty,  and  no  signature  could  bind,  and  who  were  the  de- 
termined enemies  of  human  intercourse  itself,  he  decreed 
to  make  the  country  possessed  by  these  incorrigible  and 
predestinated  criminals  a  memorable  example  to  mankind. 
He  resolved,  in  the  gloomy  recesses  of  a  mind  capacious 
of  such  things,  to  leave  the  whole  Carnatick  an  everlasting 
monument  of  vengeance,  and  to  put  perpetual  desolation 
as  a  barrier  between  him  and  those,  against  whom  the 
faith  which  holds  the  moral  elements  of  the  world  toge- 
ther, was  no  protection.  He  became  at  length  so  confi- 
dent of  his  force,  so  collected  in  his  might,  that  he  made 
no  secret  whatsoever  of  his  dreadful  resolution.  Having 
terminated  his  disputes  with  every  enemy,  and  every  ri- 
val, who  buried  their  mutual  animosities  in  their  common 
detestation  against  the  creditors  of  the  nabob  of  Arcot,  he 
drew  from  every  quarter  whatever  a  savage  ferocity  could 
add  to  his  new  rudiments  in  the  arts  of  destruction  ;  and 
compounding  all  the  materials  of  fury,  havock,  and  deso- 
lation, into  one  black  cloud,  he  hung  for  a  while  on  the 
declivities  of  the  mountains.  Whilst  the  authors  of  all 
these  evils  were  idly  and  stupidly  gazing  on  this  menacing 
meteor,  which  blackened  all  their  horizon,  it  suddenly- 
burst,  and  poured  down  the  whole  of  its  contents  upon  the 
plains  of  the  Carnatick — Then  ensued  a  scene  of  woe,  the 
like  of  which  no  eye  had  seen,  no  heart  conceived,  and 
which  no  tongue  can  adequately  tell.  All  the  horrors  of 
war  before  known  or  heard  of,  were  mercy  to  that  new  ha- 
voc. A  storm  of  universal  fire  blasted  every  field,  con- 
sumed every  house,  destroyed  every  temple.  The  miser- 
able inhabitants  flying  from  their  flaming  villages,  in  part 
were  slaughtered  ;  others,  without  regard  to  sex,  to  age, 


;  SPEAKER.  195 

'.  to  the  respect  of  rank,  or  sacredness  of  function,  fathers 
torn  from  children,  husbands  from  wives,  enveloped  in  a 
whirlwind  of  cavalry,  and  amidst  the  goading  spears  of 
drivers,  and  the  trampling  of  pursuing  horses,  were  swept 

I  into  captivity,  in  an  unknown  and  hostile  land.  Those  who 

j  were  able  to  evade  this  tempest,  fled  to  the  walled  cities. 

I  But  escaping  from  fire,  sword,  and  exile,  they  fell  into  the 
jaws  of  famine. 

The  alms  of  the  settlement,  in  this  dreadful  exigency, 
were  certainly  liberal ;  and  all  was  done  by  charity  that 
private  charity  could  do  :  but  it  was  a  people  in  beggary  ; 
it  was  a  nation  which  stretched  out  its  hands  for  food.  For 
months  together,  these  creatures  of  sulTcrance,  whose  very 

I  excess  and  luxury  in  their  most  plenteous  days,  had  fall- 
en short  of  the  allowance  of  our  austerest  fasts,  silent,  pa- 
tient, resigned,  without  sedition  or  disturbance,  almost 
without  complaint,  perished  by  an  hundred  a  day  in  the 
streets  of  Madras  ;  every  day  seventy  at  least  laid  their 
bodies  in  the  streets,  or  on  the  glacis  of  Tanjore,  and  ex- 
pired of  famine  in  the  granary  of  India.  I  was  going  to 
awake  your  justice  towards  this  unhappy  part  of  our  fel- 
low citizens,  by  bringing  before  you  some  of  the  circum- 
stances of  this  plague  of  hunger.  Of  all  the  calamities 
which  beset  and  waylay  the  life  of  man,  this  comes  the 
nearest  to  our  heart,  and  is  that  wherein  the  proudest  of 
us  all  feels  himself  to  be  nothing  more  than  he  is  ;  but  I 
find  myself  unable  to  manage  it  with  decorum  ;  these  de- 
tails are  of  a  species  of  horror  so  nauseous  and  disgust- 
ing ;  they  are  so  degrading  to  the  sufferers  and  to  the 
hearers ;  they  are  so  humiliating  to  human  nature  itself, 
that,  on  better  thoughts,  I  find  it  more  adviseable  to  throv/ 
a  pall  over  this  hideous  object,  and  to  leave  it  to  your  ge- 
neral conceptions. 

For  eighteen  months,  without  intermission,  this  de:- 
truction  raged  from  the  gates  of  Madras  to  the  gates 
of  Tanjore  ;  and  so  completely  did  these  masters  in  their 
art,  Hyder  Ali,  and  his  more  ferocious  son,  absolve 
themselves  of  their  impious  vow,  that  when  the  British 
armies  traversed,  as  they  did,  the  Carnatick  for  hundreds 
of  miles  in  all  directions,  through  the  whole  line  of  their 
inarch  they  did  not  see  one  man,  not  one  woman,  not  one 


196  AMERICAN 

child,  not  one  four-footed  beast  of  any  description  what- 
ever. One  dead  uniform  silence  reigned  over  the  whole 
region. 

Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Mr,  Grattan,  in  the  Irish  Par- 
liainent  on  some  Commercial  Propositions^  1785. 

This  arrangement  establishes  a  principle  of  lUi  posside- 
tis^ that  is,  Great  Britain  shall  retain  all  her  advantages, 
and  Ireland  shall  retain  all  her  disadvantages.  But  I  leave 
this  part  of  the  adjustment  where  reciprocity  is  disclaim- 
ed in  the  outset  of  treaty  and  the  rudiment  of  manufac- 
ture ;  I  come  to  instances  of  more  striking  inequality,  and 
iirsr,  your  situation  in  the  East.  You  are  to  give  a  mo- 
nopoly to  the  present  or  any  future  East  India  Company 
during  its  existence,  and' to  the  British  nation  for  ever  af- 
ter. It  has  been  said  that  the  Irishman  in  this  is  in  the 
same  situation  as  the  Englishman,  but  there  is  this  differ- 
ence, the  diiference  between  having  and  not  having  the 
xrade  ;  the  British  Parliament  has  judged  it  most  expedi- 
ent for  Great  Britain  to  carry  on  her  trade  to  the  East,  by 
an  exclusive  company  ;  the  Irish  Parliament  is  now  to  de- 
termine it  most  expedient  for  Ireland  to  have  no  trade  at 
all  in  these  parts.  This  is  not  a  surrender  of  the  political 
rights  of  the  constitution,  but  of  the  natural  rights  of  man  ; 
not  of  the  privileges  of  Parliament,  but  of  the  rights  of 
rations, — not  to  sail  beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and 
the  Straits  of  Magellan, — an  awful  interdict  I  Not  only 
European  settlements,  but  neutral  countries  excluded,  and 
God^s  providence  shut  out  in  the  most  opulent  boundaries 
of  creation  ;  other  interdicts  go  to  particular  places  for 
local  reasons,  because  they  belong  to  certain  European 
states  ;  but  here  are  neutral  regions  forbidden,  and  a  path 
prescribed  to  the  Irishman  on  open  sea.  Other  interdicts 
go  to  a  determinate  period  of  time,  but  here  is  an  eterni- 
ty of  restraint  ;  you  are  to  have  no  trade  at  all  during  the 
existence  of  any  company,  and  no  free  trade  to  those  coun- 
tries after  its  expiration  ;  this  resembles  rather  a  judgment 
of  God  than  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  whether  you  mea- 
sure it  by  immensity  of  space  or  infinity  of  duration,  and 
has  nothing  human  about  it  except  itr>  pr«^'^.umption. 


SPEAKER.  197 

But  if  gentlemen  can  entertain  a  doubt  of  the  mischief 
of  these  propositions,  are  they  convinced  of  their  safety  ? 
the  safety  of  giving  up  the  government  of  your  trade  ? 
No  !  the  mischief  is  prominent,  but  the  advantage  is  of  a 
most  enigmatical  nature.  Have  gentlemen  considered  the 
subject,  have  they  traced  even  the  map  of  the  countries, 
the  power  or  freedom  of  trading  with  whom  they  are  to 
surrender  for  evei  ?  Have  they  traced  the  map  of  Asia, 
Africa,  and  America  f  Do  they  know  the  French,  Dutch, 
Portuguese,  and  Spanish  settlements  ?  Do  they  know  the 
neutral  powers  of  those  countries,  their  produce,  aptitudes 
and  dispositions  ?  Have  they  considered  the  state  of  North 
America  ?  its  prefient  state,  future  groxvth^  and  every  op' 
portunity  in  the  endless  succession  of  time  attending  that 
nurse  of  commerce^  and  asylum  of  mankind?  Are  they 
now  competent  to  declare,  on  the  part  of  themselves  and 
all  their  posterity,  that  a  free  trade  to  those  regions  will 
never,  in  the  efflux  of  time,  be  of  any  service  to  the  king- 
dom of  Ireland  ?  If  they  have  information  on  this  sub- 
ject, it  must  be  by  a  communication  with  God,  for  they 
have  none  with  man:  it  must  be  inspiration,  for  it  cannot 
be  knowledge. 


The  Speech  of  Lord Erskine  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  Eng- 
land^ on  cruelty  to  Animals. 

INIy  Lords, 

I  am  now  to  propose  to  the  humane  consideration  of  thf) 
House,  a  subject  which  has  long  occupied  my  attention^ 
and  which  I  own  to  your  Lordsships  is  very  near  my 
heart. 

It  would  be  a  painful  and  disgusting  detail,  if  I  were 
to  endeavour  to  bring  before  you  the  almost  innumerable 
instp  '^es  of  cruelty  to  animals,  which  are  daily  occurring 
in  this  country,  and  which,  unfortunately,  only  gather 
strength  by  any  efforts  of  humanity  in  individuals  to  re 
press  them,  without  the  aid  of  the  law* 

These  unmanly  and  disgusting  outrages  are  mo3t  fre- 
quendy  perpetrated  by  the  basest  and  most  worthless .;  in- 
capable, for  the  most  part,  of  any  reproof  which  can  raach. 
the  mindj  and  who  know  no  more  of  th<»  hw,  than  that  z$: 

S  2. 


198  AMERICAN 

suffers  them  to  indulge  their  savage  dispositions  with  im- 
punity. 

Nothing  is  more  notorious,  than  that  it  is  not  only  use- 
less, but  dangerous,  to  poor  suffering  animals,  to  reprove 
their  oppressors,  or  to  threaten  them  with  punishment. 
The  general  answer,  with  the  addition  of  bitter  oaths  and 
increased  cruelty,  is,  "  What  is  that  to  you  ?" 

If  the  offender  be  a  servant,  he  curses  you,  and  asks  if 
you  are  his  master  ?  and  if  he  be  the  master  himself,  he 
tells  you  that  the  animal  is  his  own.  Every  one  of  your 
Lordships  must  have  witnessed  scenes  like  this.  A  noble 
Duke,  whom  I  do  not  see  in  his  place,  told  me  only  two 
days  ago,  that  he  had  lately  received  this  very  answer, 
i'he  validity  of  this  most  infamous  and  stupid  defence,  a- 
nses  from  that  defect  in  the  law  which  I  seek  to  remedy. 
Animals  are  considered  as  property  only — To  destroy  or 
to  abuse  them,  from  malice  to  the  proprietor,  or  with  an 
intention  injurious  to  his  interest  in  them,  is  criminal ;  but 
the  animals  themsehes  are  xvithout  protection — the  law  re- 
gards them  not  $iibsta?2tiveli/—ihcy  have  no  rights  ! 

I  will  not  stop  to  examine,  whether  public  cruelty  to 
animals  may  not  be,  under  many  circumstances,  an  indict- 
able offence  :  I  think  it  is,  and  if  it  be,  it  is  so  much  the 
better  for  the  argument  I  am  about  to  submit  to  your 
Lordships.  But  if  even  this  were  clearly  so,  it  would  fall 
very  short  of  the  principle  which  I  mean  anxiously  and 
earnestly  to  invite  the  House  to  adopt.  I  am  to  usk  your 
Lordships,  in  the  name  of  that  God  who  gave  to  man  his 
dominion  over  the  lower  world,  to  acknowledge  and  re- 
oognize  that  dominion  to  be  a  Moral  Trust.  It  is  a  pro- 
position which  no  man  living  can  deny,  without  denying 
the  whole  foundation  of  our  duties,  and  every  thing  tlie 
Bill  proposes  will  be  found  to  be  absolutely  corollary  to 
Its  establishment  ;  except,  indeed,  that  from  circumstances 
inevitable,  the  enacting  part  v/iil  fall  short  of  that  which 
the  indisputable  principle  of  the  preamble  would  warrant* 

Nothing,  my  Lords,  is,  in  my  opinion,  more  interest- 
ing, than  to  contemplate  the  helpless  condition  of  Man, 
with  all  his  godlike  faculties,  when  stripped  of  the  aids 
which  he  receives  from  the  numerous  classes  of  inferior 
beings,  whose  qualities,  and  pov.ers,  and  instincts,  are  ad- 
mirably and  wondcxluUy  eonstrucud  for  his  use*     If,  in 


SPEAKER.  199 

the  examination  of  these  qualities,  powers,  and  instincts, 
i  we  could  discover  nothing  else,  but  that  admirable  and 
!  wonderful  construction  for  man*s  assistance  ;  if  we  found 
I  no  organs  in  the  animals  for  their  own  gratification  and 
happiness — no  sensibility  to  pain  or  pleasure — no  grateful 
sense  of  kindness,  nor  suffering  from  neglect  or  injury — 
I  no  senses  analogous,  though  inferior  to  our  own :  if  we 
i'  discovered,  in  short,  nothing  but  mere  animated  matter, 
obviously  and  exclusively  subservient  to  human  purposes, 
j  it  would  be  difficult  to  maintain  that  the  dominion  over 
them  was  a  trust ;  in  any  other  sense,  at  least,  than  to  make 
I  the  best  use  for  ourselves  of  the  property  in  them  which 
Providence  "had  given  us.  But,  my  Lords,  it  calls  for  no 
deep  or  extended  skill  in  natural  history,  to  know  that  the 
very  reverse  of  this  is  the  case,  and  that  God  is  the  bene- 
volent and  impartial  author  of  all  that  he  has  created.  P'or 
every  animul  which  comes  in  contact  with  mnn,  and  whose 
powers,  and  qualities,  and  instincts,  are  obviously  con- 
structed for  his  use,  Nature  has  taken  the  same  care  to 
provide,  and  as  carefully  and  bountifully  as  for  man  him- 
self, organs  and  feelings  for  its  own  enj  »yment  and  happi- 
ness. Almost  every  sense  bestowed  upon  man,  is  equally 
bestowed  upon  then. — seeing,  hearing,  feeling,  thinking, 
the  sense  of  pain  and  pleasure,  the  passions  of  love  and 
anger,  sensibility  to  kindness,  and  pangs  from  unkindness 
and  neglect,  are  inseparable  characterisiics  of  their  natures, 
ns  much  as  of  our  own.  Add  to  this,  my  Lords,  that  the 
justest  and  tenderest  consideration  of  this  benevolent  sys- 
tem of  Nature,  is  not  only  consistent  with  the  fullest  do- 
minion of  man  over  the  animal  world,  but  establishes  and 
improves  it.  In  this,  as  in  every  thing  else,  the  whole 
iv.oral  systtm  is  inculciUed  by  the  pursuit  of  our  own  hap- 
piness. In  this,  as  in  all  other  things,  our  duties  and  our 
interests  are  inseparable.  I  defy  any  man  to  point  out  any 
cu>e  abuse  of  a  brute  which  is  property,  by  its  owner,  which 
is  not  directly  against  his  own  interest.  Is  it  posssible, 
then,  my  Lords,  to  contemplate  this  wonderful  arrange- 
ment, and  to  doubt,  for  a  single  moment,  that  our  domi- 
nion over  animals  is  a  trust?  They  are  creattd  indeed  for 
our  use,  but  not  for  our  abuse  :  their  freedom  and  «:  njoy- 
ments,  when  they  cease  to  be  consistent  with  our  just  do- 
minion and  enjoyments,  can  be  no  part  of  their  natures  ; 


200  AMERICAN 

but  whilst  they  are  consistent,  their  rights,  subservient  as 
they  are,  ought  to  be  as  sacred  as  our  own.  And  ahhough 
certainly,  my  lords,  there  can  be  no  law  for  man  in  that 
respect,  but  such  as  he  makes  for  himself,  yet  I  canaot 
conceive  any  thing  more  sublime,  or  interesting,  more 
greateful  to  heaven,  or  more  beneficial  to  the  world,  than 
to  see  such  a  spontaneous  restraint  imposed  by  man  upon 
himself. 

This  subject  is  most  justly  treated  by  one  of  the  best 
poets  in  our  language. 

Mr.  Cowper,  in  the  Task,  says: — 


The  sum  is  this- 


If  man's  convenienct^  health,  or  s:ifety 
Interfere,  his  rights  and  chtims  are  paramount, 
And  must  extinguish  their's,  else  they  are  all"— — 

Every  other  branch  of  our  duties,  when  subject  to  fre= 
quent  violation,  has  been  recognized  and  inculcated  by 
our  laws,  and  the  breaches  of  them  repressed  by  punish- 
ments;  and  why  not  in  this,  where  our  duties  are  so  im- 
portant, so  universally  extendi  d,  and  the  breaches-  of  them 
so  frequent  and  so  abominc  hie  ? 

But  in  what  I  am  propcsmg  to  your  Lordships,  disin- 
terested virtue,  as  in  ail  o:her  cases,  will  have  its  own  cer- 
tain reward.  The  humaniiyyou  shall  extend  to  the  low- 
er creation  will  come  abundantly  round  in  its  consequences 
to  the  whole  human  race.  The  moral  sense  which  this 
law  will  awaken  and  inculcate,  cannot  but  have  a  most 
powerful  effect  upon  our  feelings  and  sympathies  for  one 
another.  The  violences  and  outrages  committed  by  the 
k)v-er  orders  of  the  people,  are  offences  more  owing  to 
want  of  thought  and  reflection,  than  to  any  malignant  prin- 
ciple ;  and  v^'hatever,  therefore,  sets  them  a-thinking  upon 
the  duties  of  humanity,  more  especially  where  they  have 
no  rivalries  nor  resentments,  and  where  there  is  a  peculiar 
generosity  in  forbearance  and  compassion,  has  an  evident 
tendency  to  soften  their  natures,  and  to  moderate  their 
passions,  in  their  dealings  with  one  another. 

The  effect  of  laws  which  promulgate  a  sound  moral 
principle,  is  incalculable  ;  I  have  traced  it  in  a  thousand 
instances,  and  it  is  impossible  to  describe  its  value. 


SPEAKER.  201 

My  Lords,  it  was  in  consequence  of  these  simple  views, 
and  on  those  indisputable  principles,  that  I  have  framed 
ihe  preamble  of  the  vary  short  Bill  which  I  now  present 
for  a  second  reading  to  the  House.  I  might  without  pre- 
amble or  preface,  have  proposed  at  once  to  enact,  if  not  to 
declare  wilful  and  wanton  cruelty  to  the  animals  compre- 
ficnded  in  it  to  be  a  misdemeanor,  looking,  as  I  now  do, 
to  the  Commons  to  enforce  the  sanction  of  the  law  by  pe- 
cuniary penalties.  But  then  the  grand  efficacious  princi- 
ple would  have  been  obscured  ;  which,  if  fortunately 
adopted  by  your  Lordships,  will  enact  this  law  as  a  spon- 
taneous rule  in  the  mind  of  every  man  who  reads  it — • 
which  will  make  every  human  bosom  a  sanctuary  against 
cruelty — which  will  extend  the  influence  of  a  British  sta- 
tute beyond  even  the  vast  bounds  of  British  jurisdiction  ; 
and  consecrate,  perhaps,  in  all  nations,  and  in  all  ages,  that 
just  and  eternal  principle,  which  binds  the  whole  living 
world  in  one  harmonious  chain,  under  the  dominion  of  en- 
lightened man,  the  lord  and  governor  of  all. 

I  will  now  read  to  your  Lordships,  the  preamble  as  I 
have  framed  it. 

"  Whereas  it  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  subdue  to 
the  dominion,  use,  and  comfort  of  man,  the  strength  and 
faculties  of  many  useful  animals,  and  to  provide  others  for 
his  food  ;  and  whereas  the  abuse  of  that  dominion,  by  cru- 
el and  oppressive  treatment  of  such  animals,  is  not  only 
highly  unjust  and  immoral,  but  most  pernicious  in  its  ex- 
ample, having  an  evident  tendency  to  harden  the  heart  a- 
gainst  the  natural  feelings  of  humanity." 

This  preamble  may  be  objected  to  as  too  solemn  and 
unusual  in  its  language  ;  but  it  must  be  recollected,  that 
the  subject  of  the  Bill  is  most  peculiar  and  unusual ;  and 
it  being  impossible  to  give  practicable  effect  to  the  princi= 
pie  in  its  full  extent,  it  became  the  more  necessary,  in  cre- 
ating a  duty  of  imperfect  obligation,  u'here  legal  restraints 
would  be  ineffic  icious  or  impossible,  to  employ  language 
calculated  to  make  the  deepest  impression  upon  the  hu- 
man mind,  so  as  to  produce,  perhups,  more  than  the  ef- 
fect of  lav/,  where  the  ordinary  sanctions  of  law  v/ere 
wanting. 

It  may  be  now  asked,  my  Lords,  why,  if  the  principle 
of  the  Bill  be  jusily  unlolded  by  this  preamble,,  the  en- 


I 


202  AMERICAN 

acting  part  falls  so  very  short  of  protecting  the  whole  ani- 
iTial  world,  or  at  all  events  those  parts  of  it  which  conie 
"within  the  reach  of  man,  and  ^vhich  may  be  subject  to  a- 
buse.  To  that  I  answer — It  does  protect  them  to  a  cer- 
tain degree,  by  the  very  principle  which  I  have  been  sub- 
mitting to  your  consideration,  and  to  protect  them  further, 
would  be  found  to  be  attended  with  insurmountable  diffi- 
culties, and  the  whole  bill  might  be  wrecked  by  an  imprac- 
ticable effort  to  extend  it.  But  I  shall  be  happy  to  follow 
others  in  the  attempt.  The  Bill,  however,  as  it  regards 
all  animals,  creates  a  duty  of  imperfect  obligation;  and  your 
Lordships  are  very  well  aware,  that  there  are  very  many 
and  most  manifest  and  i<«portant  moral  duties,  the  breach- 
es of  which  human  laws  cannot  practically  deal  with,  and 
this  I  fear  will  be  found  to  be  the  case  in  the  subject  now 
under  consideration. 

Animals  living  in  a  state  of  nature,  would  soon  over- 
run the  earth,  and  eat  up  and  consume  all  the  sustenance 
of  man,  if  not  kept  down  by  the  ordinary  pursuits  and  des- 
truction of  them,  by  the  only  means  in  which  they  can  be 
kept  down  and  destroyed  ;  and  it  is  remarkable,  that  other 
animals  have  been  formed  by  Nature,  with  most  manifest 
instincts  to  assist  us  in  this  necessary  exercise  of  dominion; 
and,  indeed,  without  the  act  of  man,  these  animals  would 
themselves  prey  upon  one  another,  and  thus  be  visited  by 
death,  the  inevitable  lot  of  all  created  things,  in  more  pain- 
ful and  frightful  shapes.  They  have,  besides,  no  know- 
ledge of  the  future,  and  their  end,  when  appropriated  fit- 
ly for  our  food,  is  without  prolonged  suffering.  This  eco- 
nomy of  Providence,  as  it  regards  animals,  which  from 
age  to  age  have  lived  in  an  unreclaimed  state,  devoted  to 
the  use  of  man  and  of  each  other,  may  serve  to  reconcile 
the  mind  to  that  mysterious  state  of  things  in  the  present 
fallen  and  imperfect  condition  of  the  world. 

This  str.te  of  wild  animals  is  further  strikingly  illustrat- 
ed, by  the  view  of  such  of  them  as  have  been  spared  from 
the  human  huntsman,  or  the  more  numerous  tribes  of  ani- 
mals of  prey.  They  are  swept  away  by  the  elements  in 
hard  wint-ers,  retiring  as  most  of  them  do,  to  a  solitary, 
protracted,  and  painful  death. 

Old  age,  my  Lords,  even  amongst  men,  is  but  a  rare 
Llessing  ;  amongst  such  brutes,  perhaps,  never.     Old  age 


SPEAKER/  203 

can  only  be  supported  in  comfort  by  that  aid  and  tender- 
ness from  others,  arising  from  the  consciousness  of  those 
ties  of  nature,  which  it  has  not  pleased  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence to  dispense  to  the  lower  world ;  but  which,  as  the 
greatest  of  all  blessings,  it  has  communicated  to  man. — 
When  the  brutes  have  fulfilled  their  duties  to  their  young 
for  their  protection,  they  know  them  no  more,  and  die  of 
old  age,  or  cold,  or  hunger,  in  view  of  one  another,  with- 
out sympathy  or  mutual  assistance,  or  comfort. 

It  is  the  same,  to  a  certain  extent,  with  regard  to  those 
reclaimed  animals  devoted  to  man's  use  for  food,  whose 
faculties,  as  far  as  our  observation  is  capable  of  a  just  com- 
parison, approach  nearer  to  human  reason  The  old  age 
even  of  such  animals,  for  the  reasons  adverted  to,  would 
seldom  be  satisfactory.  When  they  pass,  therefore,  from 
life  to  death,  in  a  manner  which  gives  them  no  foretaste  of 
their  doom,  and  consequently  no  sense  of  pain  or  sorrow 
in  the  road  to  it,  the  ways  of  God  are  justified  to  man. 

The  Bill,  therefore,  as  it  regards  wild  animals,  could 
not  easily  have  been  framed  for  practicable  operation,  ex- 
cept by  sanctioning  as  it  does  the  principle  of  the  pream- 
ble, which  will,  I  trust,  insensibly  extend  its  influence  to 
the  protection  of  every  thing  that  has  life  ;  by  bringing  ha- 
bitually into  the  view  of  the  mind  the  duties  of  imperfect 
obligation  which  it  inculcates  ;  and  with  regard  to  animals 
bred  by  man,  or  reclaimed  for  food,  it  will  directly  pro- 
tect them  against  the  cruelties  which  are  generally  com- 
mitted on  them,  viz.  the  unmercifully  driving  them  and 
beating  them  on  thtir  passage  to  fairs  and  markets,  and  a- 
gainst  unnecess;:^ry  sufferings  in  the  hour  of  death. 

As  to  the  tendency  of  barbarous  sports  of  any  kind  or 
description  whatsoever,  to  nourish  the  national  character- 
istic of  manliness  and  courage,  the  only  shadow  of  argu- 
ment I  ever  heard  upon  such  occasions,  all  I  can  say  is 
this :  that,  from  the  mercenary  battles  of  the  lowest  of 
beasts  (viz.  human  boxers)  up  to  those  of  the  highest  and 
noblest  tliat  are  tormented  by  man  for  his  degradmg  pas- 
time, I  enter  this  public  protest  against  it.  I  never  knew 
a  man  remarkable  for  heroic  bravery,  whose  very  aspect 
was  not  lighted  up  by  gentleness  and  humanity  ;  nor  a  ktlU 
him  and  eat-him  countenance,  that  did  not  cover  the  h^aiS 
of  a  bully,  or  a  poltron. 


204  AMERICAN 

As  to  other  reclaimed  animals,  which  are  not  devoted 
to  our  use  as  food,  but  which  are  most  wonderfully  orga- 
nized to  assist  man  in  the  cultivation  of  the  earth,  and  by 
their  superior  activity  and  strength,  to  lessen  his  labour  in 
the  whole  circle  of  his  concerns,  different  protections  be- 
come necessary,  and  they  are  also  provided  for  by  the  Bill, 
and  without  the  loss  or  abridgment  of  any  one  right  of 
property  in  such  animals.  On  the  contrary,  all  its  provi- 
sions protect  them,  as  property,  from  the  abuses  of  those 
to  whose  care  and  government  their  owners  are  obliged  to 
commit  them.  They  also  reach  the  owners  themselves,  if, 
from  an  inordinate  desire  of  gain,  or  other  selfish  conside- 
rations, they  abuse  the  animals,  their  property  in  which  is 
limited  to  the  use. 

It  would  by  wasting  your  Lordship's  time,  if  I  were  to 
enumerate  the  probable  cases  which  this  part  of  the  Bill 
will  comprehend.  It  is  well  observed  by  an  Itahan  philo- 
sopher, "  that  no  man  desires  to  hear  what  he  has  already 
seen."  Your  Lordships  cannot  have  walked  the  streets,  or 
travelled  on  the  roads,  without  being  perfectly  masters  of 
this  part  of  the  subject.  You  cannot  but  have  been  almost 
daily  witnesses  to  most  disgusting  cruelties  practised  upon 
beasts  of  carriage  and  burthen,  by  the  violence  and  bruta- 
lity of  their  drivers.  To  distinguish,  such  brutality  and 
criminal  violence,  from  severe,  but  sometimes  necessary 
discipline,  may  at  first  view  appear  difficult,  and  on  that 
account  a  serious  objection  to  the  Bill ;  but  when  I  come 
to  that  part  of  the  subject,  I  pledge  myself  to  shew  that  it 
involves  no  difficulty  whatsoever.  But  there  are  other  a^ 
buses  far  more  frequent  and  important,  which  will  require 
a  more  particular  consideration.  For  one  act  of  cruelty  in 
servants,  there  are  an  hundred  in  the  owners  of  beasts  of  la- 
bor and  burthen,  sometimes  committed  by  the  owners  alone, 
from  a  scandalous  desire  of  gain,  and  sometimes  in  a  most 
unworthy  partnership  with  their  superiors,  who  are  equal- 
ly guilty,  with  no  gain  at  all,  nor  for  any  motive  that  it 
would  not  be  disgraceful  to  acknowledge.  I  allude,  my 
Lords,  to  our  unhappy  post-horses.  It  is  not  my  wish, 
my  Lords,  to  be  a  fanciful  reformer  of  the  world,  nor  to 
exact  that  the  manners  and  customs  of  a  highly-civi- 
lized nation  should  be  brought  to  the  standard  of  simplici- 
ty and  virtue,  if  indeed  such  a  standard  ever  existed  upon 


speaker:  205 

earth.  I  do  not  seek  to  appoint  inspectors  to  examine  the 
books  of  innkeepers,  so  as  to  punish  any  excess  in  the  num- 
bers of  their  stages,  as  you  do  an  excess  of  outside  pas- 
sengers on  the  roofs  of  coaches.  I  know  there  are  very 
many  cases  (which  could  not  be  brought  strictly  within  the 
scope  of  necessities)  where  these  poor  animals  must  grie- 
vously suffer,  yet  where  no  law  can  properly  reach  to  pro- 
tect them.  The  demands,  though  not  imminent,  of  hu- 
man health,  and  even  of  convenience ;  the  occasional  exi- 
gencies of  commerce  ;  the  exercise  of  franchises ;  and 
many  other  cases  which  must  occur  to  every  body,  would 
furnish  obvious  exceptions  without  violation  of  the  prin- 
ciple, and  which  every  court  and  magistrate  would  know 
how  to -distinguish.  But  the  Bill,  if  properly  executed, 
would  expose  innkeepers  to  a  reasonable  punishment,  who 
will  palpably  devote  an  innocent  animal  to  extreme  mise- 
ry, if  not  to  death  itself,  by  a  manifest  and  outrageous  ex- 
cess of  labour,  rather  than  disoblige  a  mere  traveller,  en- 
gaged in  no  extraordinary  business,  lest  in  future  he  should 
go  to  the  inn  opposite — when  the  law  shall  give  a  rule  for 
both  sides  of  the  way,  this  most  infamous  competition  will 
be  at  an  end. 

For  my  own  part,  my  Lords,  I  can  say  with  the  greatest 
sincerity  to  your  Lordships,  that  nothing  has  ever  excited 
in  my  mind  greater  disgust,  than  to  observe  what  we  all 
of  us  are  obliged  to  see  every  day  in  our  lives,  horses 
panting — what  do  I  say  !  literally  dying  under  the  scourge; 
when,  on  looking  into  the  chaises,  we  see  them  carrying 
to  and  from  London,  men  and  women,  to  whom,  or  to 
others,  it  can  be  of  no  possible  signification  whether  they 
arrive  one  day  sooner  or  later,  and  sometimes  indeed 
whether  they  ever  arrive  at  all.  More  than  half  the 
post-horses  that  die  from  abuse  in  harness,  are  killed  by 
people,  who,  but  for  the  mischief  I  am  complaining  of, 
would  fall  into  the  class  described  by  Mr.  Sterne,  of  sim- 
ple or  harmless  travellers,  galloping  over  our  roads  for 
neither  good  nor  evil,  but  to  till  up  the  dreary  blank  in  un- 
occupied life.  I  can  see  no  reason,  why  all  such  travel- 
lers should  not  endeavour  to  overcome  the  ainui  of  their 
lives,  without  killing  poor  animals,  more  innocent  and 
more  useful  than  themselves.  To  speak  gravely,  my 
Lords,  I  maintain,  that  human  idleness  ought  not  to  be 

T 


206  AMERICAN 

permitted,  by  the  laws  of  enlightened  man,  to  tax  for  no- 
thing, beyond  the  powers  which  God  has  given  thvm,  the 
animals  which  his  benevolence  has  created  lor  our  assist- 
ance. 

But  another  abuse  exists,  not  less  frequent  and  much 
more  shocking,  because  committed  under  the  deliberate 
calculation  of  intolerable  avarice,  I  allude  to  the  prac- 
tice of  buying  up  horses,  when  past  their  strength,  from 
old  age  or  disease,  upon  the  computation  (I  mean  to  speak 
literally)  of  how  many  days  torture  and  oppression  they 
are  capable  of  living  under,  so  as  to  return  a  profit  with 
the  addition  of  the  flesh  and  skin,  when  brought  to  one  of 
the  numerous  houses  appropriated  for  the  slaughter  of 
horses.  If  this  practice  only  extended  to  carrying  on  the 
fair  work  of  horses  to  the  very  latest  period  of  labour,  in- 
stead of  destroying  them  when  old  or  disabled,  I  should 
approve,  instead  of  condemning  it.  But  it  is  most  noto- 
rious, that  with  the  value  of  such  animals,  all  care  of  them 
is  generally  at  an  end,  and  you  see  them  (I  speak  literal- 
ly, and  of  a  systematic  abuse)  sinking  and  dying  under 
loads,  which  no  man  living  would  have  set  the  same  horse 
to,  when  in  the  meridian  of  his  strength  and  youth. 

This  horrid  abuse,  my  Lords,  which  appears  at  first 
view  to  be  incapable  of  aggravation,  is  nevertheless  most 
shockingly  aggravated,  when  the  period  arrives  at  which 
one  would  think  cruelty  must  necessarily  cease,  when  ex- 
hausted nature  is  ready  to  bestow  the  deliverance  of  death. 
But  even  then  a  new  and  most  atrocious  system  of  tor- 
ture commences,  of  which,  my  Lords,  I  could  myself  be 
a  witness  in  your  committee,  as  it  was  proved  to  my  own 
perfect  satisfaction,  and  that  of  my  friend  Mr.  Jekyll,  upon 
the  information  of  a  worthy  magistrate,  who  called  our  at- 
tention to  the  abuse.  But,  perhaps,  my  Lords,  I  shall  bet- 
ter describe  it,  as  it  will  at  the  same  time  afford  an  addi- 
tional proof  of  these  hideous  practices,  and  of  their  exist- 
ence at  this  hour,  by  reading  n  letter  which  I  received  but 
two  days  ago,  the  facts  of  which  I  am  ready  to  bring  in 
proof  before  your  Lordships. 

Here  Lord  Erskine  read  an  extract  from  a  letter,  which 
stated — 

"  A  very  general  practice  of  buying  up  horses  still  alive, 
but  not  capable  of  being  even  further  abused  by  any  kind  of 


SPEAKER.  207 

labour.  These  horses,  it  appeared,  were  carried  in  great 
numbers  to  slaughter-houses,  but  not  killed  at  once  for 
their  flesh  and  skins,  but  left  without  sustenance,  and  li» 
terally  starved  to  death,  that  the  market  might  be  gradu- 
ally fed; — the  poor  animals,  in  the  mean  time,  being  re- 
duced to  eat  their  own  dung,  and  frequently  gnawing  one 
another's  manes  in  the  agonies  of  hunger." 

Can  there  be  a  doubt,  my  Lords,  that  all  such  shocking 
practices  should  be  considered  and  punished  as  misde- 
mtanors?  Here  again  it  may  be  said  that  the  Bill,  in  this 
part  of  it,  will  invest  magistrates  with  a  novel  and  danger- 
ous discretion.  I  am  not  yet  arrived  at  that  part  of  the 
case,  though  I  am  fast  approaching  it;  when  I  do,  1  pledge 
myself  without  fear,  to  maintain  the  contrary,  to  the  satis- 
faction of  every  one  of  your  Lordships,  more  especially 
including  the  learned  Lords  of  the  House.  No  less  fre- 
quent and  wicked  an  abuse,  is  the  manifest  overloading  of 
carriages  and  animals  of  burthen,  particularly  asses  ;  and 
as  far  as  this  poor  animal  is  unjustly  considered  an  emblem 
of  stupidity,  the  owners  who  thus  oppress  him  are  the 
greater  asses  of  the  two.  The  same  may  be  said  of  ke  p- 
ing  animals  without  adequate  food  to  support  their  strengih, 
or  even  their  existence — this  frequently  happens  to  beasts 
impounded  for  trepasses  ;  I  have  had  complaints  of  this 
abuse  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  notice  to  the 
owner  is  seldom  served,  and  thus  the  poor  innocent  ani- 
mal is  left  to  starve  in  the  pound.  As  far  as  an  animal  is 
considered  merely  as  property,  this  may  be  all  very  well, 
and  the  owner  must  find  him  out  at  his  peril  j  but  when 
the  animal  is  looked  to  upon  the  principle  of  this  Bill,  the 
i'Tipounder  ought  to  feed  him,  and  charge  it  to  the  owner 
as  part  of  the  damages. 

Only  one  other  offence  remains,  which  I  think  it  neces- 
sary to  advert  to,  which  it  is  diiHcult  sufticiently  to  expose 
and  stigmatize,  from  the  impudence  with  which  it  is  every 
day  committed  ;  as  if  the  perpretators  of  this  kind  of  wick- 
edness were  engaged  in  something  extremely  entertaining 
and  innocent,  if  not  meritorious.  I  allude  to  those  extra- 
vagant bets  for  trying  the  strength  and  indurance  of  horses; 
not  those  animating  races,  properly  so  called,  which  the" 
horse  really  enjoys,  and  which,  though  undoubtedly  at- 
tended with  collateral  evils,  has  tended  greatly  to  improve 


208  AMERICAN 

the  breed  of  that  noble  and  u»»ful  animal.  The  contests 
\^hich  I  consider  as  wilful  and  wanton  cruelty,  are  of  a 
different  kind:  I  maintain,  that  no  man,  without  being 
guilty  of  that  great  crime,  can  put  it  upon  the  uncertain 
and  mercenary  die,  whether  in  races  against  time — no — 
not  properly  so  called,  but  rather  journies  of  great  dis- 
tances within  limited  periods,  the  exertions  shall  very  far 
exceed  the  ordmary  power  which  nature  has  bestowed  on 
the  unhappy  creature,  thus  wickedly  and  inhumanly  per- 
verted from  the  benevolent  purposes  of  their  existence. 

All  the  observjitions  I  have  just  been  making  to  your 
Lordships,  undoubtedly  apply  to  the  maliciously  torment- 
ing any  animal  whatsoever,  more  especially  animals  which 
we  have  voluntarily  reclaimed  and  domesticated  ;  and  yet 
I  fairly  own  to  your  Lordships,  that  as  the  Bill  was  origi- 
nally drawn,  and  as  it  stood  until  a  fev/  days  ago,  it  wbuld 
not  have  reached  many  shameful  and  degrading  practices. 
The  truth  is,  that  I  was  afraid  to  run  too  rapidly  and  di- 
rectly against  prejudices.  But,  on  conversing  with  very 
enlightened  and  learned  men,  I  took  courage  in  my  own 
original  intention,  and  introduced  the  concluding  clause, 
which  comprehended  the  wickedly  and  wantonly  torment- 
ing any  reclaimed  animal ;  the  effect  of  which  in  practice, 
1  will  explain  hereafter,  when  I  con;C  ^^  shew  the  practi- 
cability of  executing  the  law  without  trespassing  upon  the 
just  rights  and  privileges  of  mankind.  If  your  Lordships, 
however,  shall  ultimately  differ  from  me  in  this  part  of  the 
subject,  you  can  strike  out  this  clause  in  the  committee, 
I  have  purposely  kept  it  quite  distinct  and  separate  fronn 
the  rest  of  the  Bill,  as  I  originally  framed  it,  being  resolv- 
ed to  carry  an  easy  sail  at  first,  for  fear  of  oversetting  my 
vessel,  in  a  new  and  dangerous  navigation. 

I  now  come,  my  J^ords,  to  the  second  part  of  the  case, 
which  will  occupy  but  a  small  portion  of  your  Lordship's 
time,  on  which  1  am  afraid  I  have  trespassed  but  too  long 
already. 

Supposing,  now,  your  Lordships  to  be  desirous  of  sub- 
scribing to  the  principles  I  have  opened  to  you,  and  to  feel 
the  propriety  of  endeavouring  to  prevent,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, the  inhuman  cruelties  practised  upon  animals,  so  ge- 
neral  and  so  notorious,  as  to  render  a  more  particular  state- 
ment cf  them  as  unnecessary  as  it  would  have  been  dh- 


SPEAKER.  200 

gusting:  the  main  question  will  then  arise,  viz.  how  the  ja- 
risdiction  erected  by  this  Bill,  if  it  shall  pass  into  a  law,  may 
be  executed  by  courts  and  magistrates,  without  investing 
them  with  a  new  and  arbitrary  discretion. 

My  Lords,  I  feel  the  great  importance  of  this  conside- 
ration, and  I  have  no  desire  to  shrink  from  it ;  on  the  con- 
trary, I  invite  your  Lordships  to  the  closest  investigation 
of  it,  and  for  that  purpose  I  will  myself  anticipate  every 
possible  objection  of  that  description,  and  give  your 
Lordships,  in  a  very  few  words,  the  most  decisive  answers 
to  them. 

How,  it  may  be  first  asked,  are  magistrates  to  distin- 
guish between  the  justifiable  labours  of  the  animal,  which 
from  man's  necessities  are  often  most  fatiguing,  and  appa- 
rently excessive,  and  that  real  excess  which  the  Bill  seeks 
to  punish  as  wilful,  wicked,  and  wanton  cruelty?  How 
are  they  to  distinguish  between  the  blows  which  are  ne- 
cessary, when  beasts  of  labour  are  lazy  or  refractory,  or 
even  blows  of  sudden  passion  and  temper,  from  deliberate, 
cold-blooded,  ferocious  cruelty,  which  we  see  practised 
every  day  we  live,  and  which  has  a  tendency,  as  the  pre- 
amble recites,  to  harden  the  heart  against  all  the  impulses 
C'f  humanity  ? 

How,  m  the  same  manner,  are  they  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  fatigues  and  sufferings  of  beasts  for  slaughter, 
in  their  melancholy  journeys  to  death  in  our  markets, 
from  unnecessary,  and  therefore  barbarous,  aggravations 
of  them  ? 

Here,  my  Lords,  I  am  at  home  : — here  I  know  my 
course  so  completely,  that  I  can  scarcely  err.  I  am  no 
speculator  upon  the  effect  of  the  law  which  I  propose  to 
you,  as  the  wisest  legislators  must  often  be,  who  are  not 
practically  acquainted  with  the  administration  of  justice. 
Having  passed  my  life  in  our  courts  of  law  when  filled 
with  the  greatest  judges,  and  with  the  ablest  advocates, 
who  from  time  to  time  have  since  added  to  their  number, 
I  know  with  the  utmost  precision,  the  effect  of  it  in  prac- 
tice, and  I  pledge  myself  to  your  Lordships,  that  the  exe- 
cution of  the  Bill,  if  it  passes  into  law,  will  be  found  to  be 
most  simple  and  easy  ;  raising  up  no  new  principles  of  law^ 
and  giving  to  courts  no  larger  discretion  nor  more  diSicult 

T  2 


210  AMERICAN 

subjects  for  judgment,  than  they  are  in  the  constant  course 
of  exercising. 

First  of  all,  my  Lords,  the  law  I  propose  to  your  Lord- 
ships is  not  likely  to  be  attended  with  abuse  in  prosecu- 
tion ;  a  very  great,  but  I  am  afraid,  an  incurable  evil  in 
the  penal  code.  I  stimulate  no  mercenary  informer*,  which 
I  admit  often  to  be  necessary  to  give  effect  to  criminal  jus- 
tice ;  I  place  the  lower  creation  entirely  on  the  genuine 
unbought  sympathies  of  man. 

No  one  is  likely  to  prosecute  by  indictment,  or  to  carry 
a  person  before  a  magistrate,  without  probable,  or  rather 
"without  obvious  and  flagrant  cause,  when  he  can  derive 
no  personal  benefit  from  the  prosecution,  nor  carry  it  oa 
without  trouble  and  expense.  The  law  is,  therefore,  more 
open  to  the  charge  of  inefficacy,  than  of  vexation. 

It  can  indeed  have  no  operation,  except  when  compas- 
sionate men  (and  I  trust  they  will  become  more  numerous 
from  the  moral  sense  which  this  Bill  is  calculated  to  awa- 
ken) shall  set  the  law  in  motion  against  manifest  and  dis- 
gusting offenders,  to  deliver  themselves  from  the  pain  and 
horror  which  the  immediate  views  of  wilful  and  wanton 
cruelty  is  capable  of  exciting,  or  is  rather  sure  to  excite, 
in  a  generous  nature. 

What  possible  difficulty  then  can  be  imposed  upon  the 
magistrate,  who  has  only  to  judge  upon  hearing,  from  his 
own  humane  feelings,  vvhat  such  disinterested  informers 
have  judged  of  from  having  seen  and  felt.  The  task  is 
surely  most  easy,  and  by  no  means  novel.  Indeed,  the 
^vhole  administration  of  law,  in  many  analogous  cases,  con- 
sists in  nothing  else  but  in  discriminations,  generally  more 
difficult  in  cases  of  personal  wrongs. 

Cruelty  to  an  apprentice,  by  beating,  or  over-labour,  is 
judged  of  daily  upon  the  very  principle  which  this  Bill 
v^ill  bring  into  action  in  the  case  of  an  oppressed  animal* 

To  distinguish  the  severest  discipline,  to  command  obe- 
dience, and  to  enforce  activity  in  such  dependents,  from 
brutal  ferocity  and  cruelty,  never  yet  puzzled  a  judge  or 
a  jury,  never  ?.t  least  in  my  very  long  experience  ;  and 
when  want  of  sustenance  is  the  complaint,  the  most  culpa- 
ble over-frugality  is  never  confounded  with  a  wicked  and 
malicious  privation  of  food. 


SPEAKER.  211 

The  same  distinctions  occur  frequently  upon  the  plea  of 
moderate  chastisement,  when  any  other  servant  complains 
of  his  master,  or  when  it  becomes  necessary  to  measure 
the  degree  of  violence,  v/hich  is  justifiable  in  repelling  vio- 
lence, or  in  the  preservation  of  rights. 

In  the  same  manner,  the  damage  from  a  frivolous  as- 
sault or  of  a  battervi  the  effect  of  provocation  or  sudden 
temper,  is  daily  distinguished  in  our  courts,  from  a  severe 
and  cold-blooded  outrage.  A  hasty  word,  which  just  con- 
veys matter  that  is  actionable,  is,  in  the  same  manner,  dis- 
tinguished in  a  moment  from  malignant  and  dangerous 
slander.  Mistakes  in  the  extent  of  authority,  which  hap- 
pen every  day  in  the  discharge  of  the  complicated  dutits 
of  the  magistracy,  are  never  confounded  for  a  moment, 
even  when  the)-  have  trenched  severely  upon  personal  lib- 
erty, with  an  arbitrary  and  tyrannous  imprisonment.  Un- 
guarded or  slight  trespasses  upon  property,  real  or  perso- 
r.al,  are  in  the  same  way  the  daily  subjects  of  distinction 
from  malicious  deprivations  of  rights,  or  serious  interrup- 
tions of  their  enjoyment. 

Similar,  or  rather  nicer  distinctions,  are  occurring  daily 
in  our  courts — when  libel  or  no  libel  is  the  question.  A 
line  must  be  drawn  between  injurious  calumny,  and  fair, 
though,  perhaps,  unpleasant  animadversion ;  but  plain  good 
sense,  without  legal  subdety,  is  sure  to  settle  it  v/ith  just- 
ice— so  every  man  mr.y  enjoy  what  is  his  own,  but  not  to 
the  injury  ol  his  neighbour.  What  is  an  injury,  or  what 
only  a  loss,  without  being  injurious,  is  the  question  in  all 
cases  of  nuisance,  and  they  are  satisfactorily  &«^ttled  by  the 
common  understandings  and  feelings  of  mankind. 

My  Lords,  there  would  be  no  end  of  these  analogies, 
if  I  were  to  pursue  them  ;  I  might  bring  my  whole  pro- 
ft-s^ional  life,  ibr  near  thirty  years,  in  review  before  your 
Lordships. 

I  appeal  to  the  learned  Lords  of  the  House,  whether 
these  distinctions  are  not  of  daily  occurrence.  I  appeal 
to  my  noble  and  learned  friend  on  the  woolsack,  whether^ 
when  he  sat  as  chief  justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  he 
found  any  difBculty  in  these  distinctions.  I  appeal  to  my 
noble  and  learned  friend  who  sits  just  by  him,  whose  use- 
ful and  valuable  life  is  wholly  occupied  amidst  these  ques- 
tions, whether  they  are  doul?Lful  and  dangerous  in  the  deci- 


212  AMERICAN 

sion,  and  whether  they  are  not  precisely  in  point  with  the 
difficulties  which  I  have  anticipated,  or  with  any  others 
which  opponents  to  the  Bill  can  possibly  anticipate.  I 
make  a  similar  appeal  to  another  noble  and  learned  friend, 
who  has  filled  the  highest  situation ;  I  do  not  see  him  at 
this  moment  in  his  place,  but  to  him  also  I  might  make 
the  same  fearless  application. 

I  cannot,  therefore,  conceive  a  case  on  which  a  magis- 
trate would  be  exposed  to  any  difficulty  under  this  Bill,  if 
it  should  pass  into  a  law. 

The  cruelties  which  I  have  already  adverted  to,  are  ei- 
tlier  committed  by  owners,  or  by  servants,  charged  with 
the  care  and  government  of  horses  and  other  cattle.  If  the 
owner  unmercifully  directs  them  to  be  driven  to  most  un- 
reasonable distances,  or  with  burthens  manifestly  beyond 
their  powers  ;  if  he  buys  them  up  when  past  the  age  of 
strength,  not  for  a  use  correspondent  to  their  condition, 
but  upon  the  barbarous  and  wicked  computation  of  how 
long  they  can  be  tortured  to  profit  ;  in  neither  of  these 
cases  can  the  cruelty  be  imputed  to  the  servant  whom  you 
meet  upon  the  road,  struggling  to  perform  the  unjust  com- 
mands of  his  employer.  The  master  is  the  obvious  cul- 
prit— respondent  superior — the  spectators  and  the  servant 
are  the  witnesses — and  these  are  the  cases  where  an  in- 
dictment would  operate  as  a  most  useful  example,  without 
oppression,  to  those  who  thus  offend  systematically  against 
every  principle  of  humanity  and  justice. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  no  cruel  commands  are  given 
to  the  servant,  but  his  own  malice  offends  at  once  against 
his  master  and  the  unhappy  animal  which  he  wickedly  a- 
buses,  he  of  course  is  alone  responsible  ;  and  these  are  the 
cases  in  which  a  summary  jurisdiction  would  be  most  ge- 
nerally resorted  to,  as  more  favourable  at  once  to  the  dis- 
interested informer  and  to  the  offender,  who  would  be  thus 
punished  with  a  small  penalty,  and  be  delivered  from  an 
expensive  prosecution. 

The  other  House  of  Parliament  will  no  doubt  accom- 
plish this  in  the  further  progress  of  the  Bill. 

But  in  neither  of  these  cases,  which  comprehend,  indeed, 
every  abuse  which  the  Bill  extends  to,  is  there  any  kind 
of  danger  that  it  will  work  oppression,  or  produce  unc€r» 
uinty  in  decisions 


SPEAKER.  213 

A  man  cannot,  if  an  owner,  be  the  subject  of  an  indict- 
ment, because  he  may  have  been  less  considerate  and  mer- 
ciful than  he  ought  to  be ;  nor,  if  a  servant,  for  an  unrea- 
onable  blow  of  temper  upon  an  unmanageable  charge. 
No,  my  Lords  !  Every  indictment  or  information  before 
a  magistrate  must  charge  the  offence  to  De  committed  ma- 
liciously, and  with  wanton  cruelty,  and  the  proof  must 
correspond  with  the  charge.  This  Bill  makes  no  act  what- 
ever a  misdemeanor  that  does  not  plainly  indicate  to  the 
court  or  magistrate  a  malicious  and  wicked  intent ;  but 
this  generality  is  so  far  from  generating  uncertainty,  that 
I  appeal  to  every  member  in  our  great  profession,  wheth- 
er, on  the  contrary,  it  is  not  in  favour  of  the  accused,  and 
analogous  to  our  most  merciful  principles  of  criminal  just- 
ice ?  So  far  from  involving  the  noagistrate  in  doubtful  dis- 
criminations, he  must  be  himself  shocked  and  disgusted 
before  he  begins  to  exercise  his  authority  over  another. 
He  must  find  malicious  cruelty  ;  and  what  that  is  can  ne- 
ver be  a  matter  of  uncertainty  or  doubt,  because  nature  has 
erected  a  standard  in  the  human  heart,  by  which  it  may 
be  surely  ascertaitied. 

This  consideration  surely  removes  every  difficulty  from 
the  last  clause,  which  protects  from  wiUul,  malicious,  and 
wanton  cruelty,  all  reclaimed  animals.  Whatever  m-^y  »-« 
the  creatures  which,  by  your  own  voluntary  act,. you  chuse 
to  take  from  the  wilds  which  nature  has  allotted  to  them, 
you  must  be  supposed  to  exercise  this  admitted  dominion 
for  use,  or  for  pleasure,  or  from  curiosity.  If  for  use,  en- 
joy that  use  in  its  plenitude  ;  if  the  animal  be  fit  for  food, 
enjoy  it  decently  for  food  ;  if  for  pleasure,  enjoy  that  plea- 
sure, by  taxing  all  its  faculties  for  your  comfort ;  if  for  cu- 
riosity, indulge  it  to  the  full.  The  more  we  mix  ourselves 
with  all  created  matter,  animate  or  inanimate,  the  more  we 
shall  be  lifted  up  to  the  contemplation  of  God.  But  never 
let  it  be  said,  that  the  law  should  indulge  us  in  the  most 
atrocious  of  all  propensities,  which,  when  habitually  in- 
dulged in,  on  beings  beneath  us,  destroy  every  security  of 
human  life,  by  hardening  the  heart  for  the  perpetration  of 
all  crimes. 

The  times  in  which  we  live,  my  Lords,  have  read  us 
an  awful  lesson  upon  the  importance  of  preserving  the  mo- 
ral sympathies.     We  have  seen  that  the  highest  state  of 


214  AMEI^ICAN 

refinement  and  civilization  will  not  secure  them.  I  go- 
lemnly  protest  against  any  allusion  to  the  causes  of  the 
revolutions  which  are  yet  shaking  the  world,  or  to  the 
crimes  or  mistakes  of  any  individuals  in  any  nation  ;  but 
it  connects  itself  with  my  subject  to  remark,  that  even  in 
struggles  for  human  rights  and  privileges,  sincere  and  lau- 
dable as  they  occasionally  may  have  been,  all  human  rights 
and  privileges  have  been  trampled  upon,  by  barbarities  far 
more  shocking  than  those  of  the  most  barbarous  nations, 
because  they  have  not  merely  extinguished  natural  uncon- 
nected life,  but  have  destroyed  (I  trust  only  for  a  season) 
the  social  happiness  and  independence  of  mankind,  raising 
up  tyrants  to  oppress  them  all  in  the  end,  by  beginning 
with  the  oppression  of  each  other.  All  this,  my  Lords, 
has  arisen  from  neglecting  the  cultivation  of  the  moral 
sense,  the  best  security  of  states,  and  the  greatest  conso- 
lation of  the  world. 

My  Lords,  I  will  trouble  your  Lordships  no  longer  than 
with  admitting,  for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  that  there 
may  be  cases,  especially  in  the  beginning,  where  the  exe- 
cution of  the  Bill  may  call  for  the  exercise  of  high  judi- 
cial consideration,  through  the  dignity  and  learning  of  the 
supreme  court  of  criminal  jurisdiction.  And  here  I  can- 
not help  saying,  that  it  adds  greatly  to  the  security  I  feel 
upon  this  part  of  the  subject,  that  when  the  Bill  shall  have 
received  the  sanction  of  Parliament,  it  will  be  delivered 
over  to  my  noble  and  learned  friend,  who  presides  so  ably 
in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench.  From  his  high  authority, 
the  inferior  magistrates  will  receive  its  just  interpretation, 
and,  from  his  manly  and  expressive  eloquence,  will  be  add- 
ed, a  most  useful  inculcation  of  its  obligations  :  for  I  must 
once  again  impress  upon  your  Lordships'  minds,  the  great, 
the  incalculable  effect  of  wise  laws,  when  ably  administer- 
ed, upon  the  feelings  and  morals  of  mankind.  We  may 
be  said,  my  Lords,  to  be  in  a  manner  new  created  by  them 
— Under  the  auspices  of  religion,  in  whose  steps- they  must 
ever  tread,  to  maintain  the  character  of  wisdom,  they 
make  all  the  difference  between  the  savages  of  the  wilder- 
ness, and  the  audience  I  am  now  addressing.  The  cruel- 
ties which  we  daily  deplore,  in  children  and  in  youth,  a- 
rise  from  defect  in  education,  and  that  defect  in  educa- 
tioDj  from  the  very  defect  in  the  law,  which  I  ask  your 


SPEAKER.  20 

Lordships  to  remedy.  From  the  moral  sense  of  the  pa- 
rent re-animated,  or  rather  in  this  branch  created  by  the 
law,  the  next  generation  will  feel,  in  the  first  dawn  of  their 
ideas,  the  august  relation  they  stand  in  to  the  lower  world, 
and  the  trust  which  their  station  in  the  universe  imposes 
on  them  ;  and  it  will  not  be  left  to  a  future  Sterne  to  re- 
mind us,  when  we  put  aside  even  a  harmless  insea,  that 
the  world  is  large  enough  for  both.  This  extension  of  be- 
nevolence to  objects  beneath  us,  becomes  habitual  by  a  sense 
of  duty  inculcated  by  law,  will  reflect  back  upon  our  sym- 
pathies to  one  another,  so  that  I  may  venture  to  say  firm- 
ly to  your  Lordships,  that  the  Bill  I  propose  to  you,  if  it 
shall  receive  the  sanction  of  Parliament,  will  not  only  be 
an  honour  to  the  country,  but  an  aera  in  the  history  of  the 
world- 


Extract  from  Mr*  Sheridan^  s  Speech  on  the  Trial  of  JVar" 
ren  Hastings, 

Should  a  stranger  survey  the  land  formerly  Sirj ah  Dow- 
lah's,  and  seek  the  cause  of  its  calamity — should  he  ask, 
what  monstrous  madness  had  ravaged  thus,  with  wide- 
spread war — what  desolating  foreign  foe — what  disputed 
succession — what  religious  zeal — what  fabled  monster  has 
stalked  abroad,  and  with  malice  and  mortal  enmity  to  man, 
has  withered  with  the  gripe  of  death  every  growth  of  na- 
ture and  humanity — all  the  means  of  delight,  and  each 
original,  simple  principle  of  bare  existence  ?  the  answer 
will  be,  if  any  answer  dare  be  given.  No,  alas !  not  one  of 
these  things!  no  desolating  foreign  foe  ! — no  disputed  suc- 
cession !  no  religious  superserviceable  zeal!  This  damp  of 
death  is  the  mere  effusion  of  British  amity — we  sink  un- 
der the  pressure  of  their  support — we  writhe  under  the 
gripe  of  their  pestiferous  alliance  ! 

Thus  they  suffered — in  barren  anguish,  and  ineffectual 
bewail ings.  And,  O  audacious  fallacy  ! — says  the  defence 
of  Mr.  Hastings — What  cause  was  there  for  any  inciden- 
tal ills,  but  their  own  resistance  ? 

The  cause  was  nature  in  the  first-born  principles  of  man. 
It  grew  with  his  growth  ;  it  strengthened  with  his  strength ! 
It  taught  him  to  understand  j  it  enabled  him  to  feel.  For 


216  AMERICA]^ 

where  there  is  human  fate,  can  there  be  a  penury  of  hu- 
man feeling? — Where  there  is  injury,  will  there  not  be  re- 
sentment ? — Is  not  despair  to  be  followed  by  courage  ?  The 
God  of  Battles  pervades  and  penetrates  the  inmost  spirit 
of  man,  and  rousing  him  to  shake  off  the  burthen  that  is 
grievous,  and  the  yoke  that  is  galling,  will  reveal  the  law- 
written  in  his  heart,  and  the  duties  and  privileges  of  his 
nature — the  grand,  universal  compact  of  man  with  man  ! 
-*-That  power  is  delegated  in  trust,  for  the  good  of  all  who 
obey  it — That  the  rights  of  men  must  arm  against  man's 
oppresssion — for  that  indifference  were  treason  to  human 
state,  and  patience  nothing  less  than  blasphemy — against 
the  laws  which  govern  the  world  ! 

It  was  in  some  degree  observable,  that  not  one  of  the 
private  letters  of  Mr.  Hastings  had  been  produced  at  any 
time. — Even  Middleton,  when  all  confidence  was  broken 
between  them,  by  the  production  of  his  private  corres- 
pondence at  Calcutta,  either  feeling  for  his  own  safety  or 
sunk  under  the  fascinating  influence  of  his  master,  did 
not  dare  attempt  a  retaliation  ! — The  letters  of  Middleton, 
however,  were  sufficient  to  prove  the  situation  of  the  Na- 
bob, when  pressed  to  the  measure  of  resuming  the  Jag- 
hires,  in  which  he  had  been  represented  as  acting  wholly 
from  himself — He  was  there  described  as  lost  in  sullen 
melancholy — with  feelings  agitated  beyond  expression, 
and  with  every  mark  of  agonized  sensibility.  To  such 
a  degree  was  this  apparent,  that  even  Middleton  was  mo- 
ved to  interfere  for  a  temporary  respite,  in  which  he  might 
be  more  reconciled  to  the  measure.  I  am  fully  of  opinion, 
said  he,  that  the  despair  of  the  nabob  must  impel  him  to 
violence  ;  I  know  also  that  the  violence  must  be  fatal  to 
himself — but  yet  I  think,  that  with  his  present  feelings,  he 
will  disregard  all  consequences. — Mr.  Johnson  also,  the 
assistant  Resident,  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  Mr.  Has- 
tin'^s  to  aver  to  him  that  the  measure  was  dangerous,  that 
it  would  require  a  total  reform  of  the  collection,  which 
could  not  be  made  without  a  campaign  ! — This  was  Brit- 
ish justice !  this  was  British  huiianity  !  Mr.  Hastings 
ensures  to  the  allies  of  the  company  in  the  strongest  terms 
their  prosperity  and  his  protection ; — the  former  he  secures 
by  seadmg  an  army  to  plunder  them  of  their  wealth  and  to 
desolate  their  soil! — his  protection  is  fraught  with  a  simi- 


SPEAKER.  217 

lar  security  ; — like  that  of  a  vulture  to  a  Iamb — grappling 
in  its  vitals! — thirsting  for  its  blood! — scaring  off  each 
petty  kite  that  hovers  around — and  then,  with  an  insulting 
perversion  of  terms,  calling  sacrifice,  protection! 

An  object  for  which  history  searches  for  any  similarity 
in  vain — The  deep-searching  annals  of  Tacitus — the  lu- 
minous philosophy  of  Gibbon — ^11  the  records  of  man's 
enormity,  from  Original  Sin  to  this  period  in  which  we 
pronounce  it,  dwindle  into  comparative  insignificance  of 
enormity — both  in  aggravations  of  vile  principles,  and  ex- 
tent of  their  consequential  ruin  ! — The  victims  of  this 
oppression  were  confessedly  destitute  of  all  power  to  re- 
sist their  oppressors  ;  but  that  debility,  which  from  other 
bosoms  would  have  claimed  some  compassion,  with  res- 
pect to  the  mode  of  suffering,  here  excited  but  the  inge- 
nuity of  torture  !  Even  when  every  feeling  of  the  nabob 
was  subdued,  nature  made  a  lingering,  feeble  stand  within 
his  bosom  ;  but  even  then  that  cold  unfeeling  spirit  of  ma- 
lignity, with  whom  his  doom  was  fixed,  returned  with 
double  acrimony  to  its  purpose,  and  compelled  him  to  in- 
flict on  a  parent  that  destruction,  of  which  he  was  himself 
reserved  but  to  be  the  last  victim  ! 

The  counsel  in  recommending  an  attention  to  the  public 
in  preference  to  the  private  letters,  had  remarked  in  par- 
ticular, that  one  letter  should  not  be  taken  as  evidence,  be- 
cause it  was  evidently  and  abstractedly  private,  as  it  con- 
tained in  one  part  the  anxieties  of  Mr.  Middleton  for  the 
illness  of  his  son — This  was  a  singular  argument  indeed. 
The  circumstance  undoubtedly  merited  strict  observation 
though  not  in  the  view  in  which  it  was  placed  by  the  coun- 
sel.— It  went  to  shew  that  some  at  least  of  those  concern- 
ed in  these  transactions,  felt  the  force  of  those  ties,  which 
their  efforts  were  directed  to  tear  asunder — that  those  who 
could  ridicule  the  respective  attachment  of  a  mother  and 
a  son — who  would  prohibit  the  reverence  of  the  son  to 
the  mother  who  had  given  him  life — who  could  deny  to 
maternal  debility  the  protection  which  filial  tenderness 
should  afford — were  yet  sensible  of  the  straining  of  those 
chords  by  which  they  were  connected.  Ther»  was  some- 
thing in  the  present  business — with  all  that  was  horrible  to 
create  aversion— :SQ  vilely  loathsome,  as  to  excite  disc-ust. 

U  ^ 


218  AMERICAN- 

— If  it  were  not  a  part  of  my  duty,  it  would  be  superflu- 
ous to  speak  of  the  sacredness  of  the  ties  which  those  a- 
liens  to  feeling. — those  apostates  to  humanity  had  thus 
divided. — In  such  an  assembly,  as  that  before  which 
I  speak,  there  is  not  an  eye  but  must  look  reproof  to 
this  conduct — not  a  heart  but  must  anticipate  its  con- 
demnation—filial piety  !  It  is  the  primal  bond  of  socie- 
ty— It  is  that  instinctive  principle,  which,  panting  for 
its  proper  good,  soothes,  unbidden,  each  sense  and  sensi- 
bility of  man ! — It  now  quivers  on  every  lip ! — it  now 
beams  from  every  eye  ! — It  is  that  gratitude,  which  soft- 
ening under  the  sense  of  recollected  good,  is  eager  to  own 
the  vast  countless  debt  it  ne'er,  alas  ]  can  pay — for  so  ma- 
ny long  years  of  unceasing  solicitudes,  honourable  self 
denials,  life-preserving  cares  ! — It  is  that  part  of  our  prac- 
tice, where  duty  drops  its  awe  ! — where  reverence  refines 
into  love! — It  asks  no  aid  of  memory  ! — It  needs  not  the 
deductions  of  reaso.i  I — Pre-existing,  paramount  over  all, , 
whether  law  or  human  rule — few  arguments  can  increase 
and  none  can  dinunish  it !  It  is  the  sacrament  of  our  na- 
ture— -not  only  the  duty,  but  the  mdulgence  of  man — It  is 
his  first  great  privilege — It  is  amongst  his  last  most  en- 
dearing delights  ! — when  the  bosom  glows  with  the  idea 
of  reverberated  love — when  to  requite  on  the  visitations 
of  nature,  and  return  the  blessings  that  have  been  receiv- 
ed !  when — what  was  emotion  fixed  into  vital  principle — 
what  was  instinct  habituaiied  into  a  master  passion — sways 
all  the  sweetest  energies  of  man — hangs  over  each  vicis- 
situde of  all  that  must  pass  away — aids  the  melancholy 
virtues  in  their  last  sad  tasks  of  life — to  cheer  the  languors 
of  decrepitude,  and  age^ — explore  the  thought — explain 
the  aching  eye  !" 

He  then  proceeded  to  relate  the  circumstances  of  the 
imprisonment  of  Bahar  Ally  Cawn  and  Jewar  Ally  Cawn, 
the  ministers  of  the  nabob,  on  the  grounds  he  had  stated  : 
vith  them  was  confined  that  arch  rebel  Sumpshire  Cawn, 
by  whom  every  act  of  hostility  that  had  taken  place  against 
the  English,  was  stated  to  have  been  committed. — No  en- 
quiry, however,  was  made  concerning  his  treason,  though 
many  had  been  held  respecting  the  treasure  of  the  o- 
thers.     He  was  not  so  far  noticed  as  to  be  deprived  of  his 


SPEAKER.  219 

food* ;  nor  was  he  even  complimented  with  fetters  !  and 
yet  when  he  is  on  a  future  day  to  be  informed  of  the  mis- 
chiefs he  was  now  stated  to  have  done,  he  must  think  that 
on  being  forgotten,  he  had  a  very  providc-ntial  escape  I— 
The  others  were,  on  the  contrary>  taken  from  their  milder 
prison  at  Fyzabad  ;  and  when  threats  could  effect  nothing, 
transferred  by  the  meek  humanity  of  Mr.  Middleton  to 
the  fortress  of  Chunargur.  There,  where  the  British  flag 
was  flying,  they  were  doomed  to  deeper  dungeons,  heavier 
chains,  and  severer  punishments.  There  where  that  flag 
was  displayed,  which  was  wont  to  cheer  the  depressed, 
and  to  dilate  the  subdued  heart  of  misery — these  vene- 
rable, but  unfortunate  men  were  fated  to  encounter  some- 
thing lower  than  perdition,  and  something  blacker  than 
despair !  It  appeared  from  the  evidence  of  Mr.  Holt  and 
others,  that  they  were  both  cruelly  flogged,  though  one 
was  above  seventy  years  of  age,  to  extort  a  confession  of  the 
buried  wealth  of  the  Begums!  Being  charged  with  disaf- 
fection, they  proclaimed  their  innocence. — *'  Tell  us  where 
are  the  remaiwing  treasares,  (was  the  reply) — it  is  only  a 
treachery  to  your  immediate  sovereigns:  and  you  will  then 
be  fit  associates  for  the  representatives  of  British  faiih  and 
British  justice  in  India  ! — Oh  !  faith.  Oh  justice  !  exclaim- 
ed Mr.  Sheridan,  I  conjure  you  by  your  sacred  names  to 
depart  for  a  moment  from  this  place,  though  it  be  your  pe- 
culiar residence  ;  nor  hear  your  names  profaned  by  such 
a  sacrilegious  combination,  as  that  which  I  am  now  com- 
pelled to  repeat !  where  all  the  fair  forms  of  nature  and 
art,  truth  and  peace,  policy  and  honor,  shrunk  back  aghast 
from  the  deleterious  shade  ;  where  all  existences,  nefari- 
ous and  vile,  had  sway  ;  where  amicjst  the  black  agents  on 
one  side,  and  Middleton  with  Impey  on  the  other,  the 
toughest  bend,  the  most  unfeeling  shrink ! — the  great  fi- 
gure of  the  piece ;  characteristic  m  his  place  !  aloof  and 
iiidependent,  from  the  puny  profligacy  in  his  train  !  but 

*  The  following'  note  from  Mr.  Middleton  to  lieutenant  Francis  Rut- 
ledg-e  dated  January  20,  1782,  had  been  read  m  evidence  ; 
"  Sir, 
_  "  When  this  note  is  delivered  to  you  by  Hoolas  Roy,  I  have  to  de- 
sire,  that  you  order  the  two  prisoners  to  be  put  in  irons,  keeping  them 
iVom  all  food  &.c.  agreeable  to  my  instructions  of  yesterday. 

(^'i?»ed)  Natu.  Miuoueto.n/' 


220  AMERICAN 

far  from  idle  and  inactive,  turning  a  malignant  eye  on  all 
mischief  that  awaits  him  ! — the  multiplied  apparatus  of 
temporising  expedients,  and  intimidating  instruments  ! — 
now  cringing  on  his  prey,  and  fawning  on  his  vengeance  ! 
—now  quickening  the  limping  pace  of  craft,  and  forcing 
every  stand  that  retiring  nature  can  make  in  the  heart ! — 
the  attachments  and  the  decorums  of  life  ! — each  emotion 
of  tenderness  and  honor  ! — and  all  the  distinctions  of  na- 
tional characteristics ! — with  a  long  catalogue  of  crimes  and 
aggravations,  beyond  the  reach  of  thought  for  human  ma- 
lignity to  perpetrate,  or  human  vengeance  to  punish ! — 
lower  than  perdition — blacker  than  despair ! 

But  justice  is  not  this  halt  and  miserable  object !  It  is 
not  the  ineffective  bauble  of  an  Indian  Pagod  ! — It  is  not 
the  portentous  phantom  of  despair — It  is  not  like  any  fa- 
bled monster,  formed  in  the  eclipse  of  reason,  and  found 
in  some  unhallowed  grove  of  superstitious  darkness,  and 
political  dismay  !   No,  my  lords  ! 

In  the  happy  reverse  of  all  this,  I  turn  from  this  dis- 
gusting ciiricature  to  the  real  imag^^j ! — Justice  I  have  now 
i;efore  nie  august  and  pure  !  the  abstract  idea  of  all  that 
would  be  perfect  in  the  spirits  and  the  aspirings  of  men  ! 
where  the  mind  rises,  where  the  heart  expands  : — where 
the  countenance  is  ever  placid  and  benign  :  where  her  fa- 
vorite attitude  is  to  stoop  to  the  unfortunate: — to  hear 
their  cry  and  to  help  them  : — to  rescue  and  relieve,  to  suc- 
^courand  save: — majestic,  from  its  mercy: — venerable, 
from  its  utility  : — uplifted,  without  pride  : — firm,  without 
obduracy: — beneficent  in  each  preference:— lovely,  though 
in  her  frown ! 

On  that  justice  I  rely: — Deliberate  and  sure,  abstract- 
ed from  all  party  purpose  and  political  speculation  ! — not 
on  words,  but  on  facts ! — you,  my  lords,  who  hear  me,  I 
conjure,  by  those  rights  it  is  your  best  privilege  to  pre- 
serve— by  that  fame  it  is  your  best  pleasure  to  inherit — 
by  all  those  feelings  which  refer  to  the  first  term  in  the  se- 
ries of  existence,  the  original  compact  of  our  nature — our 

controlling  rank  in  the  creation This  is  the  call  on  all, 

to  administer  to  truth  and  equity,  as  they  would  satisfy 
the  laws  and  satisfy  themselves — iwith  the  most  exalted 
bliss,  possible  or  conceivable  for  our  nature  : — The  self- 
approving  consciousness  of  virtue,  when  the  condemnaUpn 


SPEAKER.  221 

we  look  for  will  be  one  of  the  most  ample  mercies  accom- 
plished for  mankind  since  the  creation  of  the  world  ! — My 
lords,  I  have  done  ! 


3It\  Burkes  Euloglum  on  Mr,  Sheridaii's  Speech  against 
Warren  Hastings^  June  5th^  1798. 

"  Mr.  Sheridan  has  this  day  surprised  the  thousands, 
who  hung  with  rapture  on  his  accents,  by  such  an  array  of 
talents,  such  an  exhibition  of  capacity,  such  a  display  of 
powers,  as  are  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  oratory  ;  a  dis- 
play that  reflected  the  highest  honor  upon  himself,  lustre 
upon  letters,  renown  upon  parliament,  glory  upon  the  coun- 
try. Of  all  species  ot  rhetoric,  of  every  kind  of  eloquence, 
that  has  been  witnessed,  or  recorded,  either  in  ancient,  or 
modern  times  ;  whatever  the  acuteness  of  the  bar,  the  dig- 
nity of  the  senate,  the  solidity  of  the  judgment  seat,  and 
the  sacred  morality  of  the  pulpit  have  hitherto  furnished  ; 
nothing  has  surpassed,  nothing  has  equalled  what  we  have 
this  day  heard  in  Westminster  Hall.  No  holy  seer  of  re- 
ligion, no  sage,  no  statesman,  no  orator,  no  man  of  any 
literary  description  whatever,  has  come  up,  in  the  one  in- 
stance, to  the  pure  sentiments  of  morality,  or  in  the  other, 
to  that  of  variety  of  knowledge,  force  of  imagination, 
propriety  and  vivacity  of  allusion,  beauty  and  elegance  of 
diction,  strength  and  copiousness  of  stile,  pathos  and  sub- 
limity of  conception,  to  which  we  have  this  day  listened 
with  ardor  and  admiration.  From  poetry  up  to  eloquence, 
there  is  not  a  species  of  composition  of  which  a  complete 
and  perfect  specimen  might  not,  from  that  single  speech, 
be  culled  and  collected." 


Extracts  from  a  Speech  of  Mr,  Grattan  concerning  Tithes^ 
in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons — 1788. 

It  has  been  said,  in  defence  of  clerical  exactions,  that 
though  sometimes  exorbitant^  they  have  never  been  ille- 
gal. I  deny  it  i  and  will  produce  proof  at  your  bar,  that 
exactions  in  some  of  the  disturbed  parts  have  been  not  ex-" 
orbitant  only,  but  illegal  likewise.  I  v/ill  prove  that,  in 
U2 


222  AMERICAN 

many  instances,  Tithe  has  been  demanded,  and  paid  for 
turf ;  that  Tithe  of  turf  has  been  assessed  at  one  or  two 
shillings  a  house  like  Hearth-money  ;  and  in  addition  to 
Hearth-money,  with  this  difference,  that  in  case  of  Hearth- 
money,  there  is  an  exemption  for  the  poor  of  a  certain  des- 
cription ;  but  here,  it  is  the  poor  of  the  poorest  order,  that 
is,  the  most  resistless  people,  who  pay.  I  will  prove  to 
you,  that  men  have  been  excommunicated  by  a  most  illegal 
sentence,  for  refusing  to  pay  tithe  of  turf.  I  have  two  de- 
crees in  my  hand  from  the  Vicarial  Court  of  Clyne  ;  the 
first  excommunicating  one  man,  the  second  excommuni- 
cating four  men,  most  illegally,  most  arbitrarily,  for  re- 
fusing to  pay  tithe  of  turf:  nor  has  tithe  of  turf,  without 
pretence  of  law  or  custom,  been  a  practice  only;  but  in 
some  part  of  the  South,  it  has  been  a  formed  exaction  with 
its  own  dictinct  and  facetious  appellation,  the  familiar  de- 
nomination of  Smoak-money.  A  right  to  tithe  of  turf  has 
been  usurped  against  law,  and  a  legislative  power  of  com- 
mutation has  been  exercised,  I  suppose  for  familiarity  of 
appellation  and  facility  of  collection. 

The  exactions  of  the  Tithe-proctor  are  another  Instance 
of  illegality — he  gets,  he  exacts,  he  extorts  from  the  pa- 
rishioners, in  some  of  the  disturbed  parishes,  one,  fre- 
quentl)  two  shillings  in  the  pound.  The  clergyman's  a- 
gent  is  then  paid  by  the  parish,  and  paid  extravagantly. 
Th""  iandiord's  agent  is  not  paid  in  this  manner ;  your  te- 
raut«  don't  pay  your  agent  ten  per  cent,  or  five  per  cent, 
or  any  per  centage  at  all :  What  right  has  the  clergyman 
to  ihrow  his  agent  en  his  parish  ?  As  well  might  he  make 
them  pay  the  wages  of  his  butler,  or  his  footman,  or  his 
coachman,  or  his  postillion,  or  his  cook. 

This  demand,  palpably  illegal,  must  have  commenced 
in  biihtry — an  illegal  perquisite  growing  out  of  the  abuse 
cf  powcr-^a  bribe  for  mercy  ; — as  if  the  Tithe-proctor  was 
the  natural  pastoral  protector  of  the  property  of  the  pea- 
sant, against  the  possible  oppressions  of  the  law,  and  the 
exactions  of  the  gospel.  He  was  supposed  to  take  less 
than  his  employer  would  exact,  or  the  law  would  allow  ; 
and  was  bribed  by  the  sweat  of  the  poor  fur  his  perfidy 
and  mercy.  This  original  bribe  has  now  become  a  stated 
'perquisite  j  and,  instead  of  being  payment  for  moderation. 


SPEAKER.  22:, 

it  is  now  a  per  centage  on  rapacity.  The  more  he  extorts 
for  the  parson,  the  more  he  shall  get  for  himself. 

Are  there  any  decent  Clergyman  who  will  defend  such 
a  practice  ?  Will  they  allow  that  the  men  they  employ  are 
ruffians,  who  would  cheat  the  parson,  if  they  did  not  plun- 
der the  poor;  and  that  the  clerical  remedy  against  conni- 
vance, is  to  make  the  poor  pay  a  premium  for  the  increase 
of  that  plunder  and  exaction,  of  which  they  themselves  are 
the  objects  ? 

I  excuse  the  Tithe-proctor ;  the  law  is  in  fault,  which 
gives  great  and  summary  powers  to  the  indefinite  claims 
of  the  Church,  and  suffers  both  to  be  vested  in  the  hands, 
not  only  of  the  parson,  but  of  a  wretch  who  follows  his 
own  nature,  when  he  converts  authority  into  corruption^, 
and  law  into  peculation. 

.  I  have  seen  a  catalogue  of  some  of  their  charges  ;  so 
much  for  potatoes  ;  so  much  for  wheat ;  so  much  for  oats  ; 
so  much  for  hay — all  exorbitant  ;  and  after  a  long  list  of 
unconscionable  demands  tor  the  parson,  comes  in  a  pecu- 
lation for  the  proctor:  t^vo  shillings  in  the  pound  for 
proctorage — that  is,  for  making  a  chnrge,  for  whose  ex- 
cess and  extravagance  the  proctor  ought  not  to  have  been 
paid,  but  punished. 

As  to  potatoes,  the  clergyman  ought  not  to  proceed  with 
reference  to  the  produce,  but  the  price  of  labour  :  in  the 
parts  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  the  price  of  labour, 
is  not  more  than  5d.  a  day  the  year  round  ;  that  is,  61.  4s. 
the  year  ;  supposing  the  labourer  to  work  every  day  but 
Sunday,  making  an  allowance  for  sickness,  broken  weather, 
and  holidays,  you  should  strike  off  more  than  a  sixth  :  he 
has  not  in  fact  more  than  5l.  a  year  by  his  labour  ;  his  fa- 
mily average  about  five  persons,  nearer  six,  of  whom  the 
wife  may  make  something  by  spinning  (in  these  parts  of 
the  country,  there  are  considerable  manufactories.)  Five 
pounds  a  year  with  the  wife's  small  earnings,  is  the  capi- 
tal to  support  such  a  family,  and  pay  rent  and  hearth  mo- 
ney, and  in  some  cases  of  illegal  exaction,  smoak-money 
to  the  parson. — When  a  gentleman  of  the  church  of  Ire=. 
land  comes  to  a  peasant  so  circumstanced,  and  demands 
12  or  16s.  an  acre  for  tithe  of  potatoes-^he  demands  a 
child's  provision — he  exacts  contribution  from  a  pauper — 
he  gleans  from  wretchedness — he  leases  from  penury— 


224  AMERICAN 

he  fattens  on  hunger,  raggedness,  and  destitution.  In  vain 
shall  he  state  to  such  a  man  the  proctor's  valuation^  and 
inform  him,  that  an  acre  of  potatoes,  well  tilled,  and  m 
good  ground,  should  produce  so  many  barrels  ;  that  each 
barrel,  at  the  market  price,  is  worth  so  many  shillings, 
which,  after  allowing  for  digging,  tithes  at  so  much. 

The  peasant  may  answer  this  reasoning  by  the  Bible  ; 
he  may  set  up  against  the  tithe-proctor's  valuation,  the 
New  Testament — the  precepts  of  Christ  against  the  Cler- 
gyman's arithmetic  ;  the  parson's  spiritual  professions  a- 
gainst  his  temporal  exactions,  and  in  the  argument,  the 
peasant  wouM  have  the  advantage  of  the  parson.  It  is  an 
odious  contest  between  poverty  and  luxury  ;  between  the 
struggles  of  a  pauptr  aud  the  luxury  of  a  priest. 

Such  a  man  making  such  a  demand,  may  have  many 
good  qualities  ;  may  be  a  good  theologian  ;  an  excellen.t 
controversialist;  deeply  read  in  church  history  ;  very  r.c- 
curate  in  the  value  of  church  benefices  ;  an  excellent  high 
priest — but  no  Christian  pastor.  He  is  not  the  idea  of 
a  Christian  minister — the  Whiteboy  is  the  least  of  his 
foes — his  great  enemy  is  the  precept  of  the  gospel  and  the 
example  of  the  apostles. 

A  tenth  of  your  land,  your  labour,  and  your  capital,  to 
those  who  contribute  in  no  shape  whatsoever  to  the  pro- 
duce, must  be  oppression  ;  they  only  think  otherwise,  who 
suppose,  that  every  thing  is  little  which  is  given  to  the 
parson  ;  that  no  burden  can  be  heavy,  if  it  is  the  weight 
of  the  parson  ;  that  landlords  should  give  up  their  rent, 
and  tenants  the  profits  of  their  labour,  and  all  too  little  ; 
but  uncertainty  aggravates  that  oppression ;  the  full  tenths 
ever  must  be  uncertain  as  well  as  oppressive,  for  it  is  the 
fixed  proportion  of  a  fluctuating  quantity,  and  unless  the 
high  priest  can  give  law  to  the  winds,  and  ascertain  the 
harvest,  the  Tithe,  like  that  harvest,  must  be  uncertain  ; 
but  this  uncertainty  is  aggravated,  by  the  pernicious  mo- 
tives on  which  Tithe  frequently  rises  and  falls.  It  fre- 
quently rises  on  the  poor ;  it  falls  in  compliment  to  the 
rich.  It  proceeds  on  principles  the  reverse  of  the  gospel ; 
it  crouches  to  the  strong,  and  it  encroaches  on  the  feeble  ; 
and  is  guided  by  the  two  worst  principles  in  society,  ser- 
\  ility  and  avarice  united,  against  the  cause  of  charity,  and 
under  the  cloak  of  religion. 


SPEAKER.  225 

The  Apostles  had  no  Tithe,  they  did  not  demand  it; 
thej^  and  He  whose  mission  they  preached,  protested  a- 
gainst  the  principle  on  which  Tithe  is  founded  ;  *  Carry 
neither  scrip,  nor  purse,  nor  shoes;  into  whatsoever  house 
ye  go,  say,  Peace.' 

Here  is  concord,  and  contempt  of  riches,  not  Tithe. 
'  Tiike  no  thought  what  ye  shall  eat,  or  whatye  shall  drink, 
nor  for  your  bodies,  what  ye  shall  put  on  ;'  so  said  Christ 
to  his  Apostles.  Does  this  look  like  a  right  in  his  priest- 
hood to  a  tenth  of  the  goods  of  the  community  ? 

'  Beware  of  covetousness  ;  seek  not  what  ye  shall  eat,  but 
seek  the  kingdom  of  God.' 

'  Give  alms  ;  provide  yourselves  with  bags  that  wax 
not  old,  a  treasure  in  heaven  which  faileth  not.'  This 
does  not  look  like  a  right  in  the  Christian  priesthood  to 
the  tenth  of  the  goods  of  the  community  exacted  from 
the  poor's  dividend. 

'  Distribute  unto  the  Poor,  and  seek  treasure  in  Heaven.' 

*  Take  care  that  your  hearts  be  not  charged  with  sur- 
feiting and  drunkenness,  and  the  cares  of  this  life.' 

One  should  not  think  that  our  Saviour  was  laying  the 
foundation  of  Tithe,  but  rutting  up  the  roots  of  the  claim, 
snd  prophetically  admonishing  some  of  the  modern  priest* 
hood.  If  these  precepts  are  of  divine  right,  tithes  cannot 
be  so  ;  the  precept  orders  a  contempt  of  riches — the  claim 
demands  a  tenth  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  for  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Gospel. 

The  peasantry,  in  apostolic  times,  had  been  the  object 
of  charity,  not  of  exaction.  Those  to  whose  cabin  the 
Tithe-farmer  has  gone  for  tithe  of  turf,  and  to  whose  gar- 
den he  has  gone  for  the  tithe  potatoes,  the  Apostles  would 
have  visited  likewise  ;  but  they  would  have  visited  with 
contribution,  not  for  exaction  ;  the  poor  had  shared  with 
the  Apostles, — they  contribute  to  the  Churchman. 

The  Gospel  is  not  an  argument  for,  but  against  the 
right-divine  of  Tithe ;  so  are  the  first  fathers  of  the 
Church. 

But  there  is  an  authority  still  higher  than  the  opinions 
of  the  Fathers  ;  there  is  an  authority  of  a  Council  ;  the 
Council  of  Antioch,  in  the  fourth  century,  which  declares 
that  Bishops  may  distribute  the  goods  of  the  Church,  but 
mu-st  take  no  part  to  themselves,  nor  to  the  Priests  that 


226  AMERICAN 

lived  with  them,  unless  necessity  required  them  justly; 
'  Have  food  and  raiment ;  be  therewith  content.' 

This  was  the  state  of  the  Church,  in  its  purity  ;  in  the 
fifth  century,  decimation  began,  and  Christianity  declined ; 
then,  indeed,  the  right  of  Tithe  was  advanced,  and  ad- 
Vimced  into  a  stile  that  damned  it.  The  preachers  who 
advanced  the  doctrine,  placed  all  Christian  virtue  in  the 
payment  of  Tithe.  They  said,  that  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, as  we  say  the  Protestant  religion,  depended  on  it. 
They  said,  that  those  who  paid  not  their  Tithes,  would  be 
found  guilty  before  God ;  and  if  they  did  not  give  the 
tenth. — that  God  would  reduce  the  country  to  a  tenth.— 
Blasphemous  preachers  ! — gross  ignorance  of  the  nature 
of  things — impudent  familiarity  with  the  ways  of  God — 
audacious,  assumed  knowledge  of  his  judgments,  and  a 
false  denunciation  of  his  vengeance.  And  yet  even  these 
rapacious,  blasphemous  men,  did  not  acknowledge  to  de- 
mand Tithe  for  themselves,  but  the  poor— alms ! — the  debt 
of  charity — the  poor's  patrimony. 

It  was  not  the  table  of  the  priest,  nor  his  domestics,  nor 
his  apparel,  nor  his  influence,  nor  his  ambition,  but  a  Chris- 
tian equipage  of  tender  virtues— the  widow,  the  orphan, 
and  the  poor ;  they  did  not  demand  the  Tithe  as  a  corpo» 
ration  of  Proprietors,  like  an  East-India  Company,  or  a 
South-Sea  Company,  with  great  rights  of  property  annex- 
ed, distinct  from  the  community,  and  from  religion  ;  but 
as  trustees,  humble  trustees  to  God,  and  the  poor,  pointed 
out,  they  presumed,  by  excess  of  holiness  and  contempt  of 
riches.  Nor  did  they  resort  to  decimation,  even  under 
these  plausible  pretensions,  until  forced  by  depredations 
committed  by  themselves  on  one  another.  The  goods  of 
the  church,  of  whatever  kind,^  were  at  first  in  common  dis- 
tributed to  the  support  of  the  church,  and  the  provision  of 
the  poor — but  at  length,  the  more  powerful  part,  those 
who  attended  the  courts  of  princes — they  who  intermed- 
dled in  state  affairs,  the  busy  High  priest,  and  the  servile, 
seditious,  clerical  politician  ;  and  particularly  the  abbots 
who  had  engaged  in  war,  and  h;id  that  pretence  for  extor- 
tion, usurped  the  fund,  left  the  business  of  prayer  to  the 
inferior  ckrgy,  and  the  inferior  clergy  to  tithe  and  the 
people. 


SPEAKER.  22? 

•♦ 

Let  bigotry  and  schism,  the  zealot's  fire,  the  high  priest's 

intolerance,  throngh  all  their  discordancy,  tremble,  while 
an  enlightened  Parliament,  with  arms  of  general  protec- 
tion, over- arches  the  whole  community,  and  roots  the 
Protestant  ascendancy  in  the  sovereign  mercy  of  its  na- 
ture. Laws  of  coercion,  perhaps  necessary,  certainly  se- 
vere, you  have  put  forth  already,  but  your  great  engine 
of  power  you  have  hitherto  kept  back  ;  that  engine,  which 
the  pride  of  the  bigot,  nor  the  spite  of  the  zealot,  nor  the 
ambition  of  the  high,  nor  the  arsenal  of  the  conqueror,  nor 
the  inquisition,  with  its  jaded  rack  and  pale  criminal,  ne- 
ver thought  of: — the  engine  which,  armed  with  physical 
and  moral  blessing,  comes  forth,  and  overlays  mankind  by 
services  ;  the  engine  of  redress — this  is  Government ;  and 
this  the  only  description  of  Government  worth  your  am- 
bition. Were  I  to  raise  you  to  a  great  act,  I  should  not 
recur  to  the  history  of  other  nations  ;  I  would  recite  your 
own  acts,  and  set  you  in  emulation  with  yourselves.  Do 
you  remember  that  night,  when  you  gave  your  country  a 
Free  Trade,  and  with  your  hands  opened  all  her  harbours? 
That  night  when  you  gave  her  a  Free  Constitution,  and 
broke  the  chains  of  a  century  ;  while  England,  eclipsed 
at  your  glory,  and  your  Island,  rose  as  it  were  from  its 
bed,  and  got  nearer  to  the  sun  ?  In  the  arts  that  polish  life  ; 
the  inventions  that  accommodate ;  and  the  manufactures 
that  adorn  it ;  you  will  be  for  many  years  inferior  to  some 
other  parts  of  Europe  ;  but,  to  nurse  a  growing  people- 
to  mature  a  struggling,  though  hardy  community;  to  mould, 
to  multiply,  to  consolidate,  to  inspire,  and  to  exalt  a  young 
nation  ;  be  these  your  barbarous  accomplishments  ! 

I  speak  this  to  you,  from  a  long  knowledge  of  your 
character,  and  the  various  resources  of  your  soul ;  and  I 
confide  my  motion  to  those  principles  not  only  of  justice, 
but  of  fire  ;  which  I  have  observed  to  exist  in  your  com- 
position, and  occasionally  to  break  out  in  a  flame  of  pub- 
lic zeal,  leaving  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown  in  eclipsed 
degradation.  It  is  therefore  I  have  not  come  to  you  fur- 
nished merely  with  a  cold  mechanical  plan  ;  but  have  sub- 
mitted to  your  consideration  the  living  grievances  ;  con- 
ceiving that  any  thing  in  the  shape  of  oppression  made 
once  apparent — oppression  too  of  a  people  you  have  set 


228  AMERICA 


A^- 


free the  evil  will  catch  those  warm  susceptible  proper- 
ties which  abound  in  your  mind,  and  qualify  you  for  le- 
gislation. 


J/r.  Ciirran^  in  the  Irish  Parliament  on  a  motion  to  pass 
a  Law  to  limit  the  amount  of  Pensions^  1786. 

*'  Sir,  I  object  to  adjourning  this  Bill  \o  the  first  of  Au- 
gust, because  I  perceive,  in  the  present  disposition  of  the 
House,  that  a  proper  decision  will  be  made  upon  it  this 
night.  We  have  set  out  upon  our  inquiry  in  a  manner  so 
honorable,  and  so  consistent,  that  we  have  reason  to  ex- 
pect the  happiest  success,  which  I  would  not  wish  to  see 
baffled  by  delay. 

"  We  began  with  giving  the  full  affirmative  of  this 
House,  tit  at  ^^  grievance  exists  at  all ;  we  considered  a 
simple  matter  of  fact,  and  adjourned  our  opinion,  or  ra- 
ther we  gave  sentence  on  the  conclusion,  after  having  ad- 
journed the  premises.  But  I  do  begin  to  see  a  great  deal 
of  argument  in  what  the  learned  Baronet  has  said,  and  I 
beg  gentlemen  will  acquit  me  of  apostacy  if  I  offer  some 
reasons  why  the  Bill  should  not  be  admitted  to  a  second 
reading. 

"  I  am  surprised  that  gentlemen  have  taken  up  such  a 
foolish  opinion,  as  that  our  constitution  is  maintained  by 
its  different  component  parts,  mutually  checking  and  con- 
trolling each  other :  they  seem  to  think  with  Hobbes,  that 
a  state  of  nature  is  a  state  of  warfare  ;  and  that,  like  Ma- 
homet's coffin,  the  constitution  is  suspended  between  the 
attraction  of  different  powers.  My  friends  seem  to  think 
that  the  Crown  should  be  restrained  from  doing  wrong  by 
a  physical  necessity  ;  forgetting,  that  if  you  take  away  from 
a  man  all  power  to  do  wrong,  you  at  the  same  time  take 
away  from  him  all  merit  of  doing  right,  and  by  making  it 
impossible  for  men  to  run  into  slavery,  you  enslave  them 
most  effectually.  But  if  instead  of  the  three  different 
parts  of  our  constitution  drawing  forcibly  in  right  lines, 
at  opposite  directions,  they  were  to  unite  their  power,  and 
draw  all  one  way,  in  one  right  Une,  how  great  would  be 
the  effect  of  their  force,  how  happy  the  direction  of  this 


SPEAKER.  229 

union  !  The  present  system  is  not  only  contrary  to  mathe- 
matical rectitude,  but  to  public  harmony  ;  but  if  instead  of 
privilege  setting  up  his  back  to  oppose  prerogative,  he  was 
to  saddle  his  back,  and  invite  prerogative  to  ride,  how  com- 
fortably might  they  both  jog  along ;  and  therefore  it  delights 
me  to  hear  the  advocates  for  the  royal  bounty  flowing  free- 
ly, and  spontaneously,  and  abundantly,  as  Holywell  in 
Wales.  If  the  Crown  grants  double  the  amount  of  the  re- 
venue in  pensions,  they  approve  of  their  Royal  Master,  for 
he  is  the  breath  of  their  nostrils. 

"  But  we  will  find  that  this  complaisance,  this  gentle- 
ness between  the  Crown  and  its  true  servants,  is  not  con- 
fined at  home  j  it  extends  its  influence  to  foreign  powers. 
Our  merchants  have  been  insulted  in  Portugal,  our  com- 
merce interdicted  ;  what  did  the  British  Lion  do  ?  Did  he 
whet  his  tusks  I  Did  he  bristle  up  and  shake  his  mane  ? 
Did  he  roar  ?  No  ;  no  such  thing — the  gentle  creature 
wagged  his  tail  for  six  years  at  the  court  of  Lisbon,  and 
now  we  hear  from  the  Delphic  oracle  on  the  Treasury- 
bench,  that  he  is  wagging  his  tail  in  London  to  Chevalier 
Pinto  ;  who,  he  hopes  soon  to  be  able  to  tell  us  will  allow 
his  lady  to  entertain  him  as  a  lap-dog;  and  when  she  does, 
no  doubt  the  British  factory  will  furnish  some  of  their 
softest  woollens  to  make  a  cushion  for  him  to  lie  upon. 
But  though  the  gentle  beast  has  continued  so  long  fawn- 
ing and  coaching,  I  believe  his  vengeance  will  he  great  as 
it  is  slow,  and  that  that  posterity,  whose  ancestors  are  yet 
unborn,  will  be  surprised  at  the  vengeance  he  will  take. 

*'  This  polyglot  of  wealth,  this  museum  of  curiosities, 
the  Pension  List,  embraces  every  link  in  the  human  chain' 
every  description  of  men,  women,  and  children,  from  the' 
exalted  excellence  of  a  Hawke  or  a  Rodney,  to  the  debas- 
ed situation  of  the  lady  who  humbleth  herself  that  she  may 
be  exalted.     But  the  lessons  it  inculcates  form  its  great- 
est perfection ; — it  teacheth,  that  slowth  and  vice  may  eat 
that  bread  which  virtue  and  honesty  may  starve  for  after 
they  had  earned  it.     It  teaches  the  idle  and  dissolute  to 
look  up  for  that  support  which  they  are  too  proud  to  stoop 
and  earn.     It  directs  the  minds  of  men  to  an  entire  reli- 
ance on  the  ruling  power  of  the  State,  who  feeds  the  ra- 
vens of  the  Royal  aviary,  that  cry  continually  for  food.  It 
teaches  them  to  imitate  those  Saints  on  the  Pension  List 


/ 

i 


230  AMERICAN 

that  are  like  the  lilies  of  the  field  ;  they  toil  not,  neither 
do  they  spin,  and  yet  are  arrayed  like  Solomon  in  his  glo- 
ry. In  fine,  it  teaches  a  lesson,  which  indeed  they  might 
have  learned  from  Epictetus — that  it  is  sometimes  good, 
not  to  be  over  virtuous :  it  shews,  that  in  proportion  as 
our  distresses  increase,  the  munificence  of  the  Crown  in- 
creases also  ;  in  proportion  as  our  cloaths  are  rent,  the 
royal  mantle  is  extended  over  us. 

*'  But  notwithstanding  the  Pension  List,  like  charity, 
covers  a  multitude  of  sins,  give  me  leave  to  consider  it  as 
coming  home  to  the  members  of  this  House  ;  give  me 
leave  to  say,  that  the  Crown,  in  extending  its  charity,  its 
liberality,  its  profusion,  is  laying  a  foundation  for  the  in- 
dependence of  Parliament  ;  for,  hereafter,  instead  of  ora- 
tors or  patriots  accounting  for  their  conduct  to  such  mean 
and  unworthy  persons  as  freeholders,  they  will  learn  to 
despise  them,  and  look  to  the  first  man  in  the  State  ;  and 
they  will  by  so  doing  have  this  security  for  their  indepen- 
dence, that  while  any  than  in  the  kingdom  has  a  shilling 
they  will  not  want  one. 

Suppose  at  any  future  period  of  time  the  boroughs  of 
Ireland  should  decline  from  their  present  flourishing  and 
prosperous  state  ;  suppose  they  should  fall  into  the  hands 
of  men  who  would  wish  to  drive  a  profitable  commerce, 
by  having  Members  of  Parliament  to  hire  or  let ;  in  such 
a  case  a  Secretary  would  find  great  difficulty,  if  the  pro- 
prietors of  members  should  enter  into  a  combination  |o 
form  a  monopoly  ;  to  prevent  which  in  time,  the  wisest 
way  is  to  purchase  up  the  raw  material,  young  menribers 
of  Parliament,  just  rough  from  the  grass,  and  when  they 
are  a  htde  bitted,  and  he  has  got  a  pretty  stud,  perhaps  of 
seventy,  he  may  laugh  at  the  slave-merchant ;  some  of 
them  he  may  teach  to  sound  through  the  nose,  like  a  bar- 
rel organ  ;  some,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  might  be 
taught  to  cry  hear  !  hear  I — some,  chair !  chaii  !  upon  oc- 
casion ;  though  those  latter  might  create  a  little  confusion, 
if  they  were  to  forget  whether  they  were  calling  inside  or 
outside  of  those  doors.  Again,  he  might  have  some  so 
trained  that  he  need  only  pull  a  string,  and  up  gets  a  re- 
peating member  ;  and  if  they  were  so  dull  that  they  could 
neither  speak  nor  make  orations,  (for  they  are  different 
things)  he  might  have  them  taught  to  dance  pedibus  ire  in 


SPEAKER.  231 

fiententia.  This  improvement  might  be  extended;  he 
might  have  them  dressed  in  coats  and  shirts  all  of  one  co- 
lour, and  of  a  Sunday  he  might  march  them  to  church, 
two  and  two,  to  the  great  edification  of  the  people  and  the 
honor  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  afterwards,  like  the  ancient 
Spartans,  or  the  fraternity  at  Kilmainham,  they  might  dine 
all  together  in  a  large  hall.  Good  heaven  !  what  a  sight 
to  see  them  feeding  in  public  upon  public  viands,  and  talk- 
ing of  public  subjects  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  !  It  is  a 
pity  they  are  not  immortal  ;  but  I  hope  they  will  flourish 
as  a  corporation,  and  that  pensioners  will  beget  pensioners 
to  the  end  of  the  chapter." 


Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Mr.  Erskvie^  on  the  trial  of  Mr, 
Paine,  in  which  Jie  delivers  his  opinio?!  of  the  American 
Revolution^  and  the  Federal  Constitution, 

Gentlemen,  wc  all  but  too  well  remember  the  calami- 
tous situation  in  which  our  country  stood  but  a  few  yea:  s 
ago ;  a  situation  which  no  man  can  look  back  upon  with- 
out horror,  nor  feel  himself  safe  from  relapsing  into  again, 
while  the  causes  remain  which  produced  it.  The  event  I 
allude  to,  you  must  know  to  be  the  American  war,  and 
the  still  existing  causes  of  it,  the  corruptions  of  this  go- 
vernment. In  those  days  it  was  not  thought  virtue  by  the 
patriots  of  England  to  conceal  the  existence  of  them  from 
the  people  ;  but  then,  as  now,  authority  condemned  them 
as  disaffected  subjects,  and  defeated  the  ends  they  sought 
by  their  promulgation. 

The  consequences  we  have  nil  seen  and  felt  :  America, 
from  an  obedient  affectionate  colony,  became  an  indepen- 
dent nation  ;  and  two  millions  of  people  nursed  in  the  very 
lap  of  our  monarchy,  became  the  willing  subjects  of  a  re- 
publican constitution. 

Gentlemen,  in  that  great  and  calamitous  conflict,  PM- 
mund  Burke  and  Thomas  Paine  fought  .in  the  same  field 
of  reason  together  ;  but  with  very  different  successes.  Mr. 
Burke  spoke  to  a  Parliament  in  England,  having  no  ears 
but  for  sounds  that  flattered  its  corruptions.  Mr.  Paine, 
on  the  other  hand,  spoke  to  a  people  ;  reasoned  with 
them,— -told  them  that  they  were  bound  by  no  subjection 


232  AMERICAN 

to  any  sovereignty,  farther  than  their  own  benefit  connect-^ 
ed  ihem  ;  and  by  these  powerful  arguments  prepared  the 
mifids  of  th'.^  American  pejople  for  that  glorious,  just, 
and  HAPPY  revolution, 

Gentkmen,  I  have  a  right  to  distinguish  it  by  these  e- 
pithets,  because  I  aver  that  at  this  n^on^ent  there  is  as  sa- 
cred a  regard  to  property;  as  inviohtble  a  security  to  all 
the  rights  of  individuals  ;  lo\ver  taxes  ;  fewer  grievances  : 
less  to  deplore,  and  more  to  admire,  m  the  constitution  of 
America,  thun  that  of  any  other  country  under  heaven.  I 
wish  indeed  to  except  our  own,  but  I  cannot  even  do  that, 
till  it  shall  be  purged  of  those  abuses  which,  though  they 
obscure  and  deform  the  surface,  have  not  as  yet,  thank 
Cod.,  destroyed  the  vital  parts. 


The  Petition  of  the  wife  of  Almas  AH  Caxvn  to  Warren 
Hastings* 

May  the  blessings  of  thy  God  wait  upon  thee,  may  the 
sun  of  Glory  -shine  round  thy  head,  and  may  the  gates  of 
plenty,  honour,  and  happiness  be  always  open  to  thee  and 
thine.  May  no  sorrow  distress  thy  days,  may  no  strife 
disturb  thy  nights,  may  the  pillow  of  peace  kiss  thy  cheeks, 
and  the  pleasures  of  imagination  attend  thy  dreams  ;  and 
when  length  of  years  makes  thee  tired  of  earthly  joys,  and 
the  curtain  of  death  gently  closes  round  the  last  sleep  of 
hum.an  existence,  may  the  angels  of  God  attend  thy  bed, 
and  take  care  that  the  expiring  lamp  of  life  shall  not  receive 
one  rude  blast  to  hasten  its  extinction. 

O  hearken  then  to  the  voice  of  distress,  and  grant  the 
petition  of  thy  servant !  O  spare  the  father  of  my  children, 
save  the  partner  of  my  bed,  my  husband,  my  all  that  is 
dear  !  Consider,  O  mighty  sir !  that  he  did  not  become 
rich  by  iniquity  ;  and  that  what  he  possessed  was  the  in- 
heritance of  a  long  line  of  flourishing  ancestors  ;  who  in 
those  smiling  days,  when  the  thunder  of  Great  Britain 
was  not  heard  oil  the  fertile  plains  of  Hindoostan,  reaped 
their  harvests  in  quiet,  and  enjoyed  their  patrimony  un- 
molested. Think,  O  think !  that  the  God  thou  worship- 
pest,  delights  not  in  the  blood  of  the  innocent :  remember 
thy  owft  commandment,  thou  shall  not  kill,  and  by  the  or- 


SPEAKER.  235 

der  of  heaven  give  me  back  my  Almas  All  Cawn,  and  take 
all  our  wealth,  strip  us  of  all  our  precious  stones,  of  all  our 
gold  and  silver,  but  take  not  the  life  of  my  husband  ;  inno- 
cence is  seated  on  his  brow,  and  the  milk  of  human  kind- 
ness flows  round  his  heart ;  let  us  wander  through  the  de- 
serts, let  us  become  tillers  and  labourers  in  those  delight- 
ful spots  of  which  he  was  once  lord  and  master. 

But  spare,  O  mighty  sir  !  spare  his  life  ;  let  not  the  in- 
strument of  death  be  lifted  up  against  him,  for  he  hath  not 
committed  any  crime  ;  accept  our  treasures  with  gratitude, 
thou  hast  them  at  present  by  force  ;  we  will  remember  thee 
in  our  prayers  and  forget  that  we  were  ever  rich  and  pow- 
erful. Mv  children,  the  children  of  Almas  Ali,  send  up 
their  petition  for  the  life  of  him  who  gave  them  birth,  they 
beseech  from  thee  the  author  of  their  existence  ;  from  that 
humanity  which  we  have  been  told  glows  in  the  hearts  of 
Englishmen,  by  the  honor,  the  virtue,  the  honesty,  and  the 
maternal  feelings  of  the  great  queen,  whose  offspring  is  so 
dear  to  her,  the  miserable  wife  of  thy  prisoner  beseeches 
thee  to  save  the  life  of  her  husband,  and  restore  him  to  her 
arms  ;  thy  God  will  reward  thee,  thy  country  must  thank 
thee,  ond  she  now  petitioning,  will  ever  pray  for  thee,  if 
thou  grantest  the  prayer  of  thy 

Humble  vassal, 

Almassa  Alli  Cawn. 


Mr,  Erskine  on  the  Liberty  of  the  Press^  being  the  conclii- 
ston  of  his  Speech  on  the  trial  of  3Ir,  Siockclale  for  a 
LibeL 

It  only  now  remains  to  remind  you,  that  another  consi- 
deration has  been  strongly  pressed  upon  you,  and,  no 
doubt,  v/ill  be  insisted  on  in  reply. — You  will  be  told,  that 
the  matters  which  I  have  been  justifying  as  legal,  and 
even  meritorious,  have  therefore  not  been  made  the  sub- 
ject of  complaint  ;  and  that  \yhatever  intrinsic  merit  parts 
of  the  book  may  be  supposed  or  even  admitted  to  possess, 
such  meri't  can  afford  no  justification  to  the  selected  passa- 
ges, some  of  which,  even  with  the  context,  carry  the  mean- 
ing charged  by  the  information^  and  which  are  indecent 
animadversions  on  authority.     To  this  I  would  answer. 

X.  2: 


2^4  AMERICAN 

(still  protesting  as  I  do  against  the  application  of  any  one 
of  the  innuendos,)  that  if  you  are  firmly  persuaded  of  the 
singleness  and  purity  of  the  author's  intentions,  you  are  not 
bound  to  subject  him  to  infamy,  because,  in  the  zealous 
eareer  of  a  just  and  animated  composition,  he  happens  to 
have  tripped  with  his  pen  into  an  intemperate  expression 
in  one  or  two  instances  of  a  long  work".  If  this  severe  du- 
ty were  binding  on  your  consciences,  the  liberty  of  the 
press  would  be  an  empty  sound,  and  no  man  could  ven- 
ture to  write  on  any  subject,  however  pure  his  purpose, 
v/ithout  an  attorney  at  one  elbow,  and  a  counsel  at  the  o- 
ther. — 

From  minds  thus  subdued  by  the  terrors  of  punishmen% 
there  could  issue  no  works  of  genius  to  expand  the  em- 
pire of  human  reason,  nor  any  masterly  compositions  on 
the  general  nature  of  government,  by  the  help  of  w^hich 
the  great  commonwealth  of  mankind  have  founded  their 
establishments  ;  much  less  any  of  those  useful  applications 
of  them  to  critical  conjunctures,  by  which,  from  time  to 
time,  our  own  constitution,  by  the  exertion  of  patriot  ci- 
tizens, has  been  brought  back  to  its  standard.. — Under 
such  terrors,-  all  the  great  lights  of  science  and  civilizn- 
tion  must  be  extiuguished :  for  men  cannot  communicate 
their  free  thoughts  to  one  another  with  a  lash  held  over 
their  heads.  It  is  the  nature  of  every  thing  that  is  great 
and  useful,  both  in  the  animate  and  inanimate  world,  to 
be  wild  and  irregular, — and  we  must  be  contented  to  take 
them  with  the  alloys  which  belong  to  them,  or  live  with- 
out them.  Genius  breaks  from  the  fetters  of  criticism,  but 
its  wanderings  are  sanctioned  by  its  majesty  and  wisdom, 
when  It  advances  in  its  paui  ; — subject  it  to  the  critic,  aud 
you  tame  it  into  dulness.  Mighty  rivers  break  dovvn  their 
banks  in  the  winter,  sweeping  away  to  death  the  flocks 
which  are  fattened  on  the  soil  that  they  fertilize  in  the 
summer  :  the  few  may  be  saved  by  embankments  from 
drowning,  but  the  fiock  must  perish  for  huager. — Tem- 
pests occasionally  shake  our  dwellings,  and  dissipate  our 
commerce  ;  but  they  scourge  before  them  the  lazy  ele- 
ments, which  without  them  would  stagnate  into  pestilence. 
— In  like  manner,  Liberty  herself,  the  last  and  best  gift 
of  God  to  his  creatures,  must  be  taken  jusi  as  she  is  :^— 
you  might  pare  her  down  iato  bas^tful  irregularity,  and 


SPEAKER,.  235 

shape  her  into  a  perfect  model  of  severe  scrupulous  law, 
but  she  would  then  be  Liberty  no  longer;  and  you  must 
be  content  to  die  under  the  lash  of  this  inexorable  justice 
which  you  had  exchanged  for  the  banners  of  Freedom. 

If  it  be  asked  where  the  line  to  this  indulgence  and  im- 
punity is  to  be  drawn  ;  the  answer  is  easy. — The  liberty 
of  the  press  on  general  subjects  comprehends  and  implies 
as  much  strict  observance  of  positive  law  as  is  consistent 
with  perfect  purity  of  intention,  and  equal  and  useful  so- 
ciety ;  and  what  that  latitude  is,  cannot  be  promulgated  ia 
the  abstract,  but  must, be  judged  of  in  the  particular  ia- 
stance,  and  consequendy,  upon  this  occasion,  must  be  judg- 
ed of  by  you,  without  forming  any  possible  precedent  for 
any  other  case  : — and  where  can  the  judgment  be  possibly 
so  safe  as  with  the  members  of  that  society  which  alone  can 
suffer,  if  the  writing  is  calculated  to  do  mischief  to  the  pub- 
lic ?  You  must  therefore  try  the  book  by  that  criterion,  and 
say,  v/hether  the  publication  was  premature  and  offensive, 
or,  in  other  words,  whether  the  publisher  was  bound  to 
have  suppressed  it  until  the  public  ear  was  anticipated  and 
abused,  and  every  avenue  to  the  human  heart  or  under= 
standing,  secured  and  blocked  up? 

One  word  more,  Gentlemen,  and  I  have  done. — Every 
human  tribunal  ought  to  take  care  to  adtninister  justice, 
as  we  look  hereafter,  to  have  justice  administered  to  our- 
selves.— Upon  the  principle  on  which  the  Attorney  Gene- 
ral prays  sentence  upon  my  Qient — God  have  mercy  upon 
us  !^ — Instead  of  standing  before  him  in  judgment  with  the 
hopes  and  consolations  of  Christians,  we  must  call  upon  the 
rneuntains  to  cover  us ;  for  which  of  us  can  present,  for  om- 
niscientexamination,apure, unspotted,  andfaultless  course? 
But  I  humbly  expect  that  the  benevolent  Author  of  our 
being  will  judge  us  as  I  have  been  pointing  out  for  your 
example. — Holding  up  the  great  volume  of  our  lives  in  his 
Ivands,  and  regarding  the  general  scope  of  them  : — if  he 
discovers  benevolence,  charity,  and  good  will  to  man  beat- 
ing in  the  heart,  where  he  alone  can  look  ; — if  he  finds 
that  our  conduct,  though  often  forced  out  of  the  path  by 
our  infirmities,  has  been  in  general  well  directed  ;  his  all- 
searching  eye  will  assuredly  never  pursue  us  into  those 
little  corners  of  our  lives,  much  less  will  his  justice  seleet 
them  for  punishment,  without  the  general  context  of  our 


256  AMERICAN     . 

existence,  by  which  faults  may  be  sometimes  found  to  hate 
grown  out  of  virtues,  and  very  many  of  our  heaviest  of- 
fences to  have  been  grafted  by  huTian  imperfection  upon 
the  best  and  kindest  of  our  affections.  No,  Gentlemen, 
believe  me,  this  is  not  the  course  of  divine  justice,  or 
there  is  no  truth  in  the  Gospels  of  Heaven. — If  the  ge- 
neral tenor  of  a  man's  conduct  be  such  as  I  have  repre- 
sented it,  he  may  walk  through  the  shadow  of  death,  with 
all  his  faults  about  him,  with  as  much  cheerfulness  as  in 
the  common  paths  of  life  :  because  he  knows,  that  in- 
stead of  a  stern  accuser  to  expose  before  the  Author  of 
his  nature  those  frail  passages,  which,  like  the  scored  mat- 
ter in  the  book  before  you,  chequers  the  volume  of  the 
brightest  and  best-spent  life,  his  mercy  will  obscure  them 
from  the  eye  of  his  purity,  and  our  repentance  blot  them 
«  U  for  ever. 

All  this  would,  I  admit,  be  perfectly  foreign,  and  irre- 
levant, if  you  were  sitting  here  in  a  case  of  property  be- 
tween man  and  man,  where  a  strict  rule  of  law  must  ope- 
rate, or  there  would  be  an  efid  of  civil  life  and  society.  It 
would  be  equally  foreign,  and  still  more  irrelevant,  if  ap- 
plied to  those  shameful  attacks  upon  private  reputation 
which  are  the  bane  asd  disgrace  of  the  press  ;  by  which 
whole  families  have  been  rendered  unhappy  during  life, 
by  aspersions  cruel,  scandalous,  and  unjust.  Let  such- 
libellers  remember,  that  no  one  of  my  principles  of 
defence,  can  at  any  time,  or  upon  any  occasion,  ever  ap- 
ply to  shield  them  from  punishment ;  because  such  con- 
duct is  not  only  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of  men,  as 
ihey  are  defined  by  strict  law,  but  is  absolutely  incompa- 
tible  xvith  honor^  honesty,  or  mistaken  good  intention*  On 
such  men  let  the  Attorney  General  bring  forth  all. the  ar- 
tillery of  his  office,  and  the  thanks  and  blessings  of  the 
whole  public  will  follow  him. 

Extract  from  a  Speech  of  3Ir.  Curran,  on  the  Trial  of 
Mr,  Rowan. 

Where  the  press  is  free,  and  discussion  unrestrained, 
the  mind,  by  the  collision  of  intercourse,  gets  rid  of  its 
©wn  asperities,  a  sort  of  insensible  perspiration  takes  place,. 
by  which  those  acrimonies,  which  would  otherwise  fester 


SPEAKER.  237 

and  inflame,  are  quietly  dissolved  and  dissipated.  But  now, 
if  any  aggregate  assembly  shall  meet,  they  are  censured; 
if  a  printer  publishes  their  resolutions,  he  is  punished  ; 
rightly  to  be  sure  in  both  cases,  for  it  has  been  lately  done. 
If  the  people  say.  Let  us  not  create  tumult,  but  meet  in 
delegation,  they  cannot  do  it ;  if  they  are  anxious  to  pro- 
mote parliamentary  reform  in  that  way,  they  cannot  do  it; 
the  law  of  the  last  session  has  for  the  first  time  declared 
such  meetings  to  be  a  crime.  What  then  remains?  Only 
the  liberty  of  the  press,  that  sacred  palladium,  which  no 
influence,  no  power,  no  minister,  no  government,  which 
nothing  but  the  depravity,  or  folly,  or  corruption  of  a  ju- 
ry, can  ever  destroy.  And  what  calamity  are  the  people 
saved  from,  by  having  public  communication  left  open  to 
them  ?  I  will  tell  you,  gentlemen,  what  they  are  saved 
from,  and  what  the  government  is  saved  from  ;  I  will  tell 
you  also,  to  what  both  are  exposed  by  shutting  up  that 
communication.  In  one  case  sedition  speaks  aloud,  and 
walks  abroad  ;  the  demagogue  goes  forth,  the  public  eye 
is  upon  him,  he  frets  his  busy  ho«r  upon  the  stage  ;  but 
soon  either  weariness,  or  bribe,  or  punishment,  or  disap- 
pointment bear  him  down,  or  drive  him  off",  and  he  ap- 
pears no  more.  In  the  other  case,  how  does  the  work  of 
sedition  go  forward  ?  Night  after  night,  the  muffled  re- 
bel steals  forth  in  the  dark,  and  casts  another  and  another 
brand  upon  the  pile,  to  which,  when  the  hour  of  fatal  ma- 
turity shall  arrive,  he  will  apply  the  flame.  If  you  doubt 
of  the  horrid  consequences  of  suppressing  the  efl'usion  e- 
ven  of  indiviuual  discontent,  look  to  those  enslaved  coun- 
tries where  the  protection  of  despotism  is  supposed  to  be 
secured  by  such  restraints,  even  the  person  of  the  despot 
there  is  never  in  safety.  Neither  the  fears  of  the  despot, 
nor  the  machinations  of  the  slave,  have  any  slumber,  the 
one  anticipating  the  moment  of  peril,  the  other  watching 
the  opportunity  of  aggression.  The  fatal  crisis  is  equally  a 
surprise  upon  both;  the  decisive  instant  is  precipitated  with- 
out warning,  by  folly  on  the  one  side,  or  by  phrensy  on  the 
other,  and  there  is  no  notice  of  the  treason  till  the  traitor 
acts.  In  those  unfortunate  countries  (one  cannot  read  it 
without  horror)  there  are  oflicers  whose  province  it  is  to 
bave  the  water,  which  Is  to  be  drank  by  their  rulers,  seal- 


23S  AMERICAN 

ed  up  in  bottles,  lest  some  wretched  miscreant  should 
throw  poison  into  the  draught. 

But,  gentlemen,  if  you  wish  for  a  nearer  and  more  in- 
teresting example,  yoahave  in  the  history  of  your  own  re- 
volution ;  you  have  it  at  that  memorable  period,  when  the 
monarch  found  a  servile  acquiescence  in  the  ministers  of 
his  folly,  when  the  liberty  of  the  press  was  trodden  un- 
der foot,  when  venal  sheriffs  returned  packed  juries  to  car- 
ry into  effect  those  fatal  conspiracies  of  the  few  against 
the  many,  when  the  devoted  benches  of  public  justice 
were  filled  by  some  of  those  foundlings  of  fortune,  who, 
overwhelmed  in  the  torrent  of  corruption  at  an  early  pe- 
riod, lay  at  the  bottom  like  drowned  bodies,  while  sound- 
mess  or  sanity  remained  in  them  ;  but  at  length  becoming 
buoyant  by  putrefaction,  they  rose  as  they  rotted,  and 
floated  to  the  surface  of  the  polluted  stream,  where  they 
were  drifted  along,  the  objects  of  terror,  and  cootagion, 
and  abomination. 

In  that  awful  moment  of  a  nation's  travail,  of  the  last 
gasp  of  tyranny,  and  tht  first  breath  of  freedom,  how  preg- 
nant is  the  example  ?  The  press  extinguished,  the  people 
enslaved,  and  the  prince  undone. 

As  the  advocate  of  society,  therefore,  af  peace,  of  do- 
mestic liberty,  and  the  lasting  union  of  the  two  countries, 
I  conjure  you  to  guard  the  liberty  of  the  press,  that  great 
sentinel  of  the  state,  that  grand  detector  of  public  impos- 
ture ;  guard  it,  because  when  it  sinks,  there  sinks  with  it, 
in  one  common  grave,  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  and  the 
security  of  the  crown. 

Gentlemen,  I  am  glad  that  this  question  has  not  be«n 
brought  forward  earlier ;  I  rejoice  for  the  sake  of  the 
court,  of  the  jury,  and  of  the  public  repose,  that  this 
t[uestion  has  not  been  brought  forward  till  now.  In  Great 
Britain  analogous  circumstances  have  taken  place.  At  the 
commencement  of  that  unfortunate  war  which  has  deluged 
Europe  with  blood,  the  spirit  of  the  English  people  was 
tremblingly  alive  to  the  terror  of  French  principles ;  at  that 
moment  of  general  paroxysm,  to  accuse  was  to  convict. 
The  danger  loomed  larger  to  tke  public  eye,  from  the  mis- 
ty medium  through  which  it  was  surveyed.  We  measure 
«inaccessible  heights  by  the  shadows  which  they  project ; 


.     SPEAKER.  239 

'where  the  lowness  and  the  distance  of  the  light  form  the 
length  of  the  shade. 

There  is  a  sort  of  aspiring  and  adventurous  credulity, 
which  disdains  assenting  to  obvious  truths,  and  delights  in 
catching  at  the  improbability  of  circumstances,  as  its  best 
ground  of  faith.  To  what  other  cause,  gentlemen,  can  you 
ascribe  that,  in  the  wise,  the  reflecting,  and  the  philoso- 
phic nation  of  Great  Britain,  a  printer  has  been  gravely 
found  guilty  of  a  libel,  for  publishing  those  resolutions  to 
which  the  present  minister  of  that  kingdom  had  actually 
subscribed  his  name  ?  To  what  other  cause  can  you  as- 
cribe, what  in  my  mind  is  still  more  astonishing,  in  such  a 
country  as  Scotland,  a  nation  cast  in  the  happy  medium  be- 
tween the  spiritless   acquieacence  of  submissive  poverty, 
and  the  sturdy  credulity  of  pampered  wealth  ;  cool  and  ar- 
dent, adventurous  and   persevering;  winning  her  eagle 
flight  against  the  blaze  of  every  science,  with  an  eye  that 
never  winks,  and  a  wing  that  never  tires :  crowned  as  she 
is  with  the  spoils  of  every  art,  and  decked  with  the  wreath 
of  every  muse  ;  from  the  deep  and  scrutinizing  researches 
of  her  Humes,  to  the  sweet  and  simple,  but  not  less  sub- 
lime and  pathetic  morality  of  her  Burns — how  from  the 
bosom  of  a  country  like  that,  genius  and  character,  and  ta- 
lents, should  be  banished  to  a  distant  barbarous  soil ;  con- 
demned to  pine  under  the  horrid  communion  of  vulgar 
vice  and  base-born  profligacy,  for  twice  the  period  that  or- 
dinary calculation  gives  to  the  continuance  of  human  life? 
But  I  will  not  further  press  any  idea  that  is  painful  to  me, 
and  I  am  sure  must  be  painful  to  you  ;   I  will  only  say, 
you  have  now  an  example,  of  which  neither  England  nor 
Scotland  had  the  advantage  ;  you  have  the  example  of  the 
panic,  the  infatuation,  and  the  contrition  of  both.  It  is  now 
for  you  to  decide  whether  you  will  profit  by  their  experi- 
ence of  idle  panic  and  idle  regret,  or  whether  you  mean- 
ly prefer  to  palliate  a  servile  imitation  of  their  frailty,  by 
a  paltry  aftectation  of  their  repentance.    It  is  now  for  you 
to  shew  that  you  are  not  carried  away  by  the  same  hectic 
delusions,  to  acts,  of  which  no  tears  can  wash  away  the'fa- 
tal  consequences,  or  ti*e  indehble  reproach. 


240  AMERICAN 


Extract  from  the  Speech  of  Mr.  Cur  ran  in  the  case  of  Mas- 
sy V.  Headfort. 

Never  so  clearly  as  in  the  present  instance,  have  I  ob- 
served that  safeguard  of  justice  which  Providence  has 
placed  in  the  nature  of  man.  Such  is  the  imperious  do- 
minion with  which  truth  and  reason  wave  their  sceptre  o- 
ver  the  human  intellect,  that  no  solicitation,  however  art- 
ful, no  talent,  however  commanding,  can  seduce  it  from 
its  allegiance.  In  proportion  to  the  humility  of  our  sub- 
mission to  its  rule,  do  we  rise  into  some  faint  emulation 
of  that  ineffable  and  presiding  divinity,  whose  character- 
istic attribute  it  is  to  be  coerced  and  bound  by  the  inexo- 
rable laws  of  its  own  nature,  so  as  to  be  all-xvise  and  all- 
just  from  necessity,  rather  than  election.  You  have  seen 
it  in  the  learned  advocate  who  has  preceded  me,  most  pe- 
culiarly and  strikingly  illustrated — you  have  seen  even  his 
great  talents,  perhaps  the  first  in  any  country,  languishing 
under  a  cause  too  weak  to  carry  him,  and  too  heavy  to  be 
carried  by  him.  He  was  forced  to  dismiss  his  natural  can- 
dour and  sincerity,  and,  having  no  merits  in  his  case,  to 
substitute  the  dignity  of  his  own  manner,  the  resources  of 
his  own  ingenuity,  over  the  overwhelming  difficulties  with 
which  he  was  surrounded.  Wretched  client !  Unhappy 
advocate !  What  a  combination  do  you  form  !  But  such 
is  the  condition  of  guilt — its  commission  mean  and  tremu- 
lous— its  defence  artificial  and  insincere — its  prosecution 
candid  and  simple — its  condemnation  dignified  and  aus- 
tere. Such  has  been  the  defendant's  guilt — such  his  de- 
fence— such  shall  be  my  address — and  such,  I  trust,  your 
verdict.  The  learned  counsel  has  told  you  that  this  un- 
fortunate woman  is  not  to  be  estimated  at  40,000/.  Fatal 
and  unquestionable  is  the  truth  of  this  assertion.  Alas  ! 
gentlemen,  she  is  no  longer  worth  any  thing — faded,  fall- 
en, degraded  and  disgraced,  she  is  worth  less  than  nothitig! 
Biit  it  is  for  the  honor,  the  hope,  the  expectation,  the  ten- 
derness, and  the  comforts,  that  have  been  blasted  by  the 
defendant,  and  have  fled  for  ever,  that  you  are  to  remu- 
nerate the  plaintiff,  by  the  punishment  of  the  defendant. 
It  is  not  her  present  value  which  you  are  to  weigh — but 
it  is  her  value  at  that  time,  when  she  sat  basking  in  a  hus- 


SPEAKER.  241 

band's  love,  with  the  blessings  of  heaven  on  her  head,  and 
its  purity  in  her  heart — when  she  sat  amongst  her  family, 
and  administered  the  morality  of  the  parental  board.  Es- 
timate that  past  value — compare  it  with  its  present  deplo- 
rable diminution — and  it  may  lead  you  to  form  some  judg- 
ment of  the  severity  of  the  injury,  and  the  extent  of  the 
compensation. 


The  Conclusion  of  31}\  Erskine's  address  to  the  Jury^  on 
the  Trial  of  Mr.  Hardy ^  November  oth^  1794. 

Gentlemen,  my  whole  argument  then  amounts  to  no 
mo^e  than  this,  that  before  the  crime  of  compassing  the 
king's  death  can  be  found  bij  ijou^  the  Jury^  whose  pro- 
vince it  is  to  judge  of  its  existence,  it  must  be  believed  hy 
you  to  have  existed  in  point  of  fact.  Before  you  can  ad- 
judge A  FACT,  you  must  believe  it — not  suspect  it,  or  ima- 
gine it  or  fancy  it, — but  believe  it — and  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  impress  the  human  mind  with  such  a  reasonable  and 
certain  belief,  as  is  necessary  to  be  impressed,  before  a 
Christian  man  can  adjudge  his  neighbour  to  the  smallest 
penalty,  much  less  to  the  pains  of  death,  without  having 
such  evidence  as  a  reasonable  mind  will  accept  of  as  the 
infallible  test  of  truth.  And  what  is  that  evidence  ? — 
Neither  more  nor  less  than  tftat  which  the  constitution  has 
established  in  the  Courts  for  the  general  administration  of 
justice  ;  namely,  that  the  evidence  convinces  the  Jury,  be- 
yond all  reasonable  doubt,  that  the  criminal  intention^  con- 
.stituthig  the  crime,  existed  in  the  mind  of  the  man  upon 
trial,  and  was  the  main  spring  of  his  conduct.  The  rules 
of  evidence,  as  they  are  settled  by  law,  and  adopted  in  its 
general  administration,  are  not  to  be  over-ruled  or  tamper- 
ed with.  They  are  founded  in  the  charities  of  religion  ; 
in  the  philosophy  of  r.ature  ;  in  the  truths  of  history,  and 
in  the  experience  of  common  life  ;  and  whoever  ventures 
rashly  to  depart  from  them,  let  him  remember  that  it  will 
be  meted  to  him  in  the  same  measure,  and  that  both  God 
and  man  will  judge  him  accordingly.  These  are  argu- 
ments addressed  to  your  reasons  and  consciences,  not  to 
be  shaken  in  upright  minds  by  any  precedent,  for  no  pre- 
cedents can  sanctify  injustice ;  if  they  could,  every  human 


^2  AMERICAN 

right  would  long  ago  have  been  extinct  upon  the  earth. 
If  the  State  Trials  in  bad  times  are  to  be  searched  for 
precedents,  what  murders  may  you  not  commit ; — what 
law  of  humanity  may  you  not  trample  upon  ; — what  rule 
of  justic'vj  may  you  not  violate  ; — and  what  maxim  of  wise 
policy  may  you  not  abrogate  and  confound  ? — If  prece- 
dents in  bad  times  are  to  be  implicitly  followed,  why  should 
we  have  heard  any  evidence  at  all  ? — -You  might  have  con- 
victed, without  any  evidence,  for  many  have  been  so  con- 
victed, and  in  this  manner  murdered,  even  by  acts  of  Par- 
liament. If  precedents,  in  bad  times  are  to  be  followed, 
why  should  the  Lords  and  Commons  have  investigated 
these  charges,  and  the  Crown  have  put  them  into  this 
course  of  judicial  trial  ? — since,  without  such  a  trial,  and 
even  after  an  acquittal  upon  one, — they  might  have  attaint- 
ed all  the  prisoners  by  act  of  Parliament ; — they  did  so  in 
the  case  of  Lord  Strafford. — There  are  precedents,  there- 
fore, for  all  such  things ; — but  such  precedents  as  could 
not  for  a  moment  survive  the  times  of  madness  and  dis- 
traction, which  gave  them  birth,  butwhich,  as  soon  as  the 
spurs  of  the  occasions  were  blunted,  were  repealed,  and 
execrated  even  by  Parliaments  which  (little  as  I  may  think 
of  the  present)  ought  not  to  be  compared  with  it :  Parlia- 
ments sitting  in  the  darkness  of  former  times, — in  the 
night  of  freedom, — before  the  principles  of  government 
were  developed,  and  before  the  constitution  became  fixed. 
The  last  of  these  precedents,  and  all  the  proceedings  upon 
at,  were  ordered  to  be  taken  off  the  file  and  burnt,  to  the 
intent  that  the  same  might  no  longer  be  visible  in  §fter- 
ages  ;  an  order  dictated,  no  doubt,  by  a  pious  tenderness 
for  national  honor,  and  meant  as  a  charitable  covering  for* 
the  crimes  of  our  fathers. — But  it  was  a  sin  against  pos- 
terity ;  it  was  a  treason  against  society, — for,  instead  of 
commanding  them  to  be  burnt,  they  should  rather  have 
directed  them  to  be  blazoned  in  large  letters  upon  the  walls 
of  our  Courts  of  Justice,  that,  like  the  characters  decy- 
phered  by  the  prophet  of  God,  to  the  eastern  tyrant,  they 
might  enlarge  and  blacken  in  your  sights,  to  terrify  you 
from  acts  of  injustice. 

In  times,  when  the  whole  habitable  earth  is  in  a  state 
of  change  and  fluctuation, — when  deserts  are  starting  up 
into  civilized  empires  around  you, — and  when  men,  no 


SPEAKER.  243 

longer  slaves  to  the  prejudices  of  particular  countries, 
much  less  to  the  abuses  of  particular  governments,  en- 
list themselves,  like  the  citizens  of  an  enlightened  wc>rld, 
into  whatever  communities  their  civil  liberties  may  be  best 
protected  ;  it  never  can  be  for  the  advantage  of  this  coun- 
try to  prove,  that  the  strict,  unextended  letter  of  her  la^vs, 
is  no  security  to  its  inhabitants, — On  the  contrary,  when 
so  dangerous  a  lure  is  every  where  holding  out  to  emi- 
gration, it  will  be  found  to  be  the  wisest  policy  of  Great 
Britain  to  set  up  her  happy  constitution, — the  strict  letter 
of  her  guardian  laws,  and  the  proud  condition  of  equal 
freedom,  which  her  highest  and  her  lowest  subjects  ought 
equally  to  enjoy ; — it  will  be  her  wisest  policy  to  set  up 
these  first  of  human  blessings  against  those  charms  of 
change  and  novelty  which  the  varying  condition  of  the 
world  is  hourly  displaying,  and  which  may  deeply  affect 
the  population  and  prosperity  of  our  country. — In  times, 
when  the  subordination  to  authority  is  said  to  be  every- 
where but  too  little-felt,  it  will  be  found  to  be  the  wisest 
policy  of  Great  Britain,  to  instil  into  the  governed  an  al- 
most superstitious  reverence  for  the  strict  security  of  the 
laws  ;  which,  from  their  equality  of  principle,  beget  no 
jealousies  or  discontent ; — which,  from  their  equal  admi- 
nistration, can  seldom  work  injustice  :  and  which,  from 
the  reverence  growing  out  of  their  mildness  and  antiqui- 
ty, acquire  a  stability  in  the  habits  and  affections  of  men, 
far  beyond  the  force  of  civil  obligation  : — whereas  se- 
vere penalties,  and  arbitrary  constructions  of  laws  inten- 
ded for  security,  lay  the  foundations  of  alienation  from 
every  human  government,  and  have  been  the  cause  of  all 
the  calamities  that  have  come,  and  are  coming  upon  the 
earth. 

Gentlemen,  what  we  read  of  in  books  makes  but  a  faint 
impression  upon  us,  compared  to  what  we  see  passing  un- 
der our  eyes  in  the  living  world.  I  remember  the  people 
of  another  country,  in  like  manner,  contending  for  a  re- 
novation of  their  constitution,  sometimes  illegally  and  tur- 
bulently,  but  still  devoted  to  an  honest  end  : — I  myself 
saw  the  people  of  Brabant  so  contending  for  the  ancient 
constitution  of  the  good  Duke  of  Burgundy ; — how  was 
this  people  dealt  by  ? — All,  who  were  only  contending  for 
their  own  rights  and  privileges,  were  supposed  to  be  of 


244  AMERICAN 

course  disaffected  to  the  Emperor: — they  were  handed 
over  to  courts  constituted  for  .the  emergency,  as  this  is, 
and  the  Emperor  marched  his  army  through  the  country 
till  all  was  peace  ; — but  such  peace  as  there  is  in  Vesuvi- 
us, or  iEtna,  the  very  moment  before  they  vomit  forth 
their  lava,  and  roll  their  conflagrations  over  the  devoted 
habitatiOTis  of  mankind  : — when  the  French  approached, 
the  fatal  effects  were  suddenly  seen  of  a  government  of 
constraint  and  terror; — the  well-affected  were  dispirited, 
and  the  disaffected  inflamed  into  fury. — At  that  moment 
the  Archduchess  fled  from  Brussels,  and  the  Duke  of 
Saxe-Teschen  was  sent  express  to  offer  the  joyeuse  entree 
so  long  petitioned  for  in  vain  :  but  the  season  of  concession 
was  past ; — the  storm  blew  from  every  quarter, — and  the 
throne  of  Brybant  departed  for  ever  from  the  House  of 
Burgundy. — Gentlemen,  I  venture  to  afiirm,  that,  with  o- 
ther  councils,  this  fatal  prelude  to  the  last  revolution  in 
that  country,  might  have  been  averted  : — if  the  Emperor 
had  been  advised  to  make  the  concessions  of  justice  and 
affection  to  his  people,  they  would  have  risen  in  a  mass  to 
maintain  their  prince's  authority,  interwoven  with  their 
ov^n  liberties  ;  and  the  French,  the  giants  of  modern 
times,  would,  like  the  giants  of  antiquity,  have  been 
trampled  in  the  mire  of  their  own  ambition.  In  the  same 
manner,  a  far  more  splendid  and  important  crown  passed 
away  from  his  Majesty's  illustrious  brows  : — the  impe- 
rial CROWN  OF  America. — The  people  of  that  country 
too,  for  a  long  season,  contended  as  subjects^  and  often 
with  irregularity  and  turbulence,  for  what  they  felt  to  be 
their  rights  :  and,  O  Gentlemen  !  that  the  inpiring  and  im- 
mortal eloquence  of  that  man,  whose  name  I  have  so  oft- 
en mentioned,  had  then  been  heard  with  effect ! — what 
v^as  his  language  to  this  country  when  she  sought  to  lay 
burdens  on  America,-^not  to  support  the  dignity  of  the 
Crown,  or  for  the  increase  of  national  revenue,  but  to  raise 
a  fund  for  the  purpose  of  corruption  ; — a  fund  for  main- 
taining those  tribes  of  hireling  skipjacks,  which  Mr.  Tooke 
so  well  contrasted  with  the  hereditary  nobility  of  England  ! 
—Though  America  would  not  bear  this  imposition,  she 
would  have  borne  any  useful  or  constitutional  burden  to  sup- 
port the  parent  state. — *•  P'or  that  service,  for  all  service,' 
said  Mr.  Burke,  '  whether  of  revenue,  trade,  or  empire, 


SPEAKER.  245 

my  trust  is  in  her  interest  in  the  British  constitution. 
My  hold  of  the  colonies  is  in  the  close  affection  which 
grows  from  common  names,  from  kindred  blood,  from 
similar  privileges,  and  equal  protection.  These  are  ties 
which,  though  light  as  air,  are  as  strong  as  links  of  iron. 
Let  the  colonies  always  keep  the  idea  of  their  civil  rights 
associated  with  your  governments,  they  will  cling  and 
grapple  to  you,  and  no  force  under  heaven  will  be  of 
power  to  tear  them  from  their  allegiance.  But  let  it  be 
once  understood,  that  your  government  may  be  one  thing, 
and  their  privileges  another  ;  that  these  two  things  may 
exist  without  any  mutual  relation  ;  the  cement  is  gone  ; 
the  cohesion  is  loosened  ;  and  every  thing  hastens  to  de^ 
cay  and  dissolution.  As  long  as  you  have  the  wisdom 
to  keep  the  sovereign  authority  of  this  country  as  the 
sanctuary  of  liberty,  the  sacred  temple  consecrated  to  our 
common  faith,  wherever  the  chosen  race  and  sons  of 
England  worship  freedom,  they  will  turn  their  faces  to- 
ward you.  The  more  they  multiply,  the  more  friends 
you  will  have  ;  the  more  ardently  they  love  liberty,  the 
more  perfect  will  be  their  obedience.  Slavery  they  can 
have  any  where.  It  is  a  weed  that  grows  in  every  soil. 
They  may  have  it  from  Spain,  tiiey  may  have  it  from 
Prussia.  But  until  you  become  lost  to  all  feeling  of  your 
true  interest  and  your  natural  dignity,  freedom  they  can 
have  from  none  but  you.  This  is  the  commodity  of 
price,  of  which  you  have  the  monopoly.  This  is  the 
true  act  of  navigation,  which  binds  to  you  the  commerce 
of  the  colonies,  and  through  them  secures  to  you  the 
wealth  of  the  world.  Is  it  not  the  same  virtue  which 
does  every  thing  for  us  here  in  England  r  Do  you  ima- 
gine then,  that  it  is  the  land-tax  act  which  raises  yqur 
revenue  ?  that  it  is  the  annual  vote  in  the  Committee  of 
Supply,  which  gives  you  your  army  ?  Or  that  it  is  the 
Mutiny  Bill  which  inspires  it  with  bravery  and  disci- 
pUne  ?  No  !  surely  i?o  !  It  is  the  love  of  the  people  ;  it  is 
their  attachment  to  their  government,  from  the  sense  of 
the  deep  stake  they  have  in  such  a  glorious  inalitution, 
which  gives  you  your  army  and  your  navy,  and  infuses 
into  both  that  liberal  obedience,  without  which  your  ar- 
my would  be  a  base  rabble,  and  your  navy  nothing  but 
rotten  timber.' 

Y  3 


246  AMERICAN 

GenUemen,  to  conclude — My  fervent  wish  is  that  we 
may  not  conjure  up  a  spirit  to  destroy  ourselves,  nor  set 
the  example  here  of  what  in  another  country  we  deplore. 
—Let  us  cherish  the  old  and  venerable  laws  of  our  fore- 
fathers.— Let  our  judicial  administration  be  strict  and 
jxire  ;  and  let  the  Jury  of  the  larjd  preserve  the  life  of  a 
fellow-subject,  who  only  asks  it  from  them  upon  the  same 
terms  under  which  they  hold  their  own  lives,  and  all  that 
is  dear  to  them  and  their  posterity  for  ever. — Let  me  re- 
peat the  wish  with  which  I  began  my  address  to  you,  and 
which  proceeds  from  the  very  bottom  of  my  heart ;-— may 
it  please  God,  who  is  the  Author  of  all  mercies  to  man- 
Itind,  whose  providence,  I  am  persuaded,  guides  and  su- 
perintends the  transactions  of  the  world,  and  whose  guar- 
dian spirit  has  for  ever  hovered  over  this  prosperous  is- 
land, to  direct  and  fortify  your  judgments.  I  am  awnre, 
I  have  not  acquitted  myself  to  the  unfortunate  man,  who 
has  put  his  trust  in  me,  in  the  manner  I  could  have  wished; 
yet  I  am  unable  to  proceed  any  further;  exhausted  in  spirit 
and  strength,  but  confident  in  the  expectation  of  justice. — 
There  is  one  thing  more,  however,  that  (if  I  can)  1  must 
state  to  you,  namely,  that  I  will  show,  by  as  many  wit- 
nesses, as  it  may  be  found  necessary  or  convenient  for 
you  to  hear  upon  the  subject,  that  the  views  of  the  socie- 
ties were  whar  I  have  alleged  them  to  be  ; — that  whatever 
irregularities  or  indiscretions  they  might  have  committed, 
their  purposes  were  honest; — and  that  P»Ir.  Hardy's,  above 
all  other  men,  can  be  established  to  have  been  so.  I  have 
indeed,  an  Honorable  Gentleman  (Mr.  Francis)  in  my 
eye,  at  this  moment,  to  be  called  hereafter  as  a  witness, 
who  being  desirous  in  his  place,  as  a  member  of  Pariia- 
ms-nt,  to  promote  an  enquiry  into  the  seditious  practices 
complained  of,  ^Ir.  Hardy  offered  himself  voluntarily  to 
come  forward,  proiTered  a  sight  of  all  the  papers,  which 
v/ere  afterwards  seized  in  his  custody,  and  tendered  eve- 
ry possible  assistance  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  laws  of  his 
country,  if  found  to  be  offended.  I  will  show  likewise  his 
character  to  be  religious,  temperate,  humane,  and  mode- 
rate, and  his  uniform  conduct  all  that  can  belong  to  a 
<^ood  subject,  and  an  honest  man. — When  you  have  heard 
iliis  evidence,  it  will,  beyond  all  doubt,  confirm  ycu  in 


SPEAKER,  247 

coming  to  the  conclusion  which^  at  such  great  length  (for 
which  I  entreat  your  pardon,)  I  have  been  endeavouring 
to  support. 

Mr*  Fox's  Eiiloghim  on  General  Washington^  In  the  Bri- 
tish Parliament — 1794. 

How  infinitely  superior  must  appear  the  spirit  and  prin- 
ciples of  General  Washington,  in  his  late  address  to  Con- 
gress, compared  with  the  policy  of  modern  European 
courts  !  Illustrious  man !  deriving  honor  less  from  the 
splendor  of  his  situation  than  from  the  dignity  of  his  mind  ; 
before  whom  all  borrowed  greatness  sinks  into  insignifi- 
cance, and  all  the  princes  and  potentates  of  Europe  (ex- 
cepting the  membersofour  own  family)  become  little  and 
contemptible  !  He  has  had  no  occasion  to  have  recourse 
to  any  tricks  of  policy  or  arts  of  alarm  ;.his  authority  has 
been  sufficiendy  supported  by  the  same  means  by  which  it 
was  acquired,  and  his  conduct  has  uniformly  been  charac- 
terised by  wisdom,  moderation,  and  firmness.  He,  feel- 
ing gratitude  to  France  for  the  assistance  received  from 
her  in  that  great  contest  which  secured  the  independence 
of  America,  did  not  choose  to  give  up  the  system  of  neu- 
trality in  favour  of  this  country.  Having  once  laid  down 
that  line  of  conduct,  which  both  gratitude  and  policy  point- 
ed out  as  most  proper  to  be  pursued,  not  all  the  insults  or 
provocation  of  the  French  minister  Genet  could  at  all  put 
him  out  of  his  way,  or  bend  him  from  his  purpose.  En- 
trusted with  the  care  of  the  welfare  of  a  great  people,  he 
did  not  allow  the  misconduct  of  another,  with  respect  to 
himself,  for  one  moment  to  interrupt  the  duty  which  he 
owed  to  them,  or  withdraw,  his  attention  from  their  inter- 
ests. He  h:id  no  fear  of  the  Jacobins;  he  felt  no  alarm 
irom  their  principles,  and  considered  no  precaution  as  ne- 
cessary in  order  to  stop  their  progress.  The  people  over 
whom  he  presided,  he  knew  to  be  acquainted  v/ith  their 
rights  and  their  duties.  He  trusted  to  their  own  good 
sense  to  defeat  the  effect  of  those  arts  which  might  be  em- 
ployed to  inflame  or  mislead  their  minds ;  and  was  sensi- 
ble that  a  government  could  be  in  no  danger,  while  it  re- 
tained the  attachment  and  confidence  of  its  subjects — at- 
rachmentj  in  this  instaace,  not  blindly  adopted,  confidence 


243  AMERICAN 

not  implicitly  given,  but  arising  from  the  conviction  of  its 
excellence,  and  the  experience  of  its  blessings.  I  cannot 
indeed  help  admiring  the  wisdom  and  the  fortune  of  this 
great  man  ;  not  that  by  the  phrase  for  time  I  mean  in  the 
smallest  degree  to  derogate  from  his  merit.  But,  not- 
withstanding his  extraordinary  talents  and  exalted  integri- 
ty, it  must  be  considered  as  singularly  fortunate,  that  he 
should  have  experienced  a  lot,  which  so  seldom  falls  to 
the  portion  of  humanity,  and  have  passed  through  such  a 
variety  of  scenes,  without  stain  and  without  reproach.  It 
must  indeed  create  astoRishment,  that  placed  in  circum- 
stances so  critical,  and  filling  for  a  series  of  time,  a  station 
so  conspicuous,  his  character  should  never  once  have  been 
called  in  question  ;  that  he  should  in  no  one  instance  have 
been  accused  either  of  improper  insolence,  or  of  mean 
submission,  in  his  transactions  with  foreign  nations.  It 
has  been  reserved  for  him  to  run  the  race  of  glory,  with- 
out experiencing  the  smallest  interruption  to  the  brilliancy 
of  his  career.  The  breath  of  censure  has  not  dared  to  im- 
peach the  purity  of  his  conduct,  nor  the  eye  of  envy  to 
raise  its  malignant  glance  to  the  elevation  of  his  virtues. 
Such  has  been  the  transcendant  merit  and  the  unparalleled 
fate  of  this  illustrious  man  !  But  if  the  maxims  now  held 
forth  were  adopted,  he  who  now  ranks  as  the  asserter  of  his 
country's  freedom,  and  the  guardian  of  its  interests,  and 
honor,  would  be  deemed  to  have  disregarded  and  betray- 
ed that  country,  and  to  have  entailed  upon  himself  indeli- 
ble reproach.  How  did  he  act  when  insulted  by  Genet  ? 
Did  he  consider  it  as  necessary  to  avenge  himself  for  the 
misconduct  or  madness  of  an  individual,  by  involving  a 
whole  continent  in  the  horrors  of  war  ?  No  ;  he  contented 
himself  with  procuring  satisfaction  for  the  insult,  by  caus- 
ing Genet  to  be  recalled  :  and  »J:ius  at  once  consulted  his 
own  dignity  and  the  interests  of  his  country.  Happy  A- 
mericans  !  while  the  whirlwind  flies  over  one  quarter  of 
the  globe,  and  spreads  every  where  desolation,  you  remain 
protected  from  its  baneful  effects,  by  your  own  virtues  and 
the  wisdom  of  your  government.  Separated  from  Europe 
by  an  immense  ocean,  you  feel  not  the  effects  of  those  pre- 
judices and  passions  which  convert  the  boasted  seats  of 
civilization  into  scenes  of  horror  and  bloodshed.  You  pro- 
fit by  the  folly  and  madness  of  the  contending  nations,  and 


SPEAKER.  249 

afford  in  your  more  congenial  clime  r.n  asylum  to  those 
blessings  and  virtues  which  they  wantonly  contemn,. or 
wickedly  exclude  from  their  bosom  !  Cultivating  the  arts 
of  peace  under  the  influence  of  freedom,  you  advance  by 
rapid  strides  to  opulence  and  distinction  ;  and  if  by  any 
accident  you  should  be  compelled  to  take  part  in  the 
present  unhappy  contest,  if  you  should  find  it  necesary  to 
avenge  insult,  or  repel  injury,  the  world  will  bear  witness 
to  the  equity  of  your  sentiments  and  the  moderation  of 
your  views,  and  the  success  of  your  arms  will,  no  doubt, 
be  proportioned  to  the  justice  of  your  cause  ! 


Extracts  of  two  Speeches  delivered  by  Air.  Sheridan  to  the 
Electors  of  Westminster^  on  the  18th  of  September^  and 
the  22dof  October^  I8O6,  at  the  death  of  Mr.  Fox. 

"  Gentlemen, 
"  Electors  of  Westminster,  in  addressing  you  upon  this 
occasion,  I  am  afraid,  that,  before  I  proceed  to  the  few 
observations  which  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  submit  to  you,  I 
shall  be  obliged  to  commence  with  a  request  which  I  am 
almost  ashamed  to  make  for  your  indulgence,  if  in  CQn-* 
sequence  of  a  short  but  sharp  indisposition,  from  v/hich  I 
am  just  recovering,  my  voice  should  not  be  strong  enough 
to  be  clearly  audible  to  the  full  extent  of  this  large  as- 
sembly. 

'•'•  Upon  that  subject  which  must  fill  all  your  minds — 
upon  the  merits  of  vbat  illustrious  man,  whose  death  has 
occasioned  the  present  mcotjng^  I  shall,  I  can  say  but  little. 
There  must  be  some  interval  o.tween  the  heavy  blow  thut 
has  been  struck,  and  the  considerai\^ri.of  i^s  effect,  before 
any  one,  and  how  many  are  there  of  tn^^^  -^yho  have  re- 
vered and  loved  IMr.  Fox  as  I  h.ive  done,  can  spcRU  of  his 
death  with  the  feeling,  but  manly  composure  which  be- 
comes the  dignified  regret  it  ought  to  inspire.  To  you, 
however.  Gentlemen,  it  cannot  be  necessarv  to  describe 
him — for  you  must  have  known  him  well.  To  say  any 
thing  to  you  at  this  moment,  in  the  first  hours  of  your  un- 
burdened sorrows,  must  be  unnecessary,  and  almost  insult- 
ing. His  image  is  still  present  before  you — his  virtue  is  ia 
your  hearts — his  loss  is  your  despair  ! 


250  '  AMERICAN 

**  I  have  seen  in  one  of  the  Morning  papers  what  ars 
stated  to  have  been  the  last  words  of  this  great  man, — ■ 
'  I  die  happy  ;'  then,  turning  to  the  dearest  object  of  his 
affection,  *  1  pity  you  !'  But  had  another  moment  been  al- 
lowed him,  ajid  had  the  modesty  of  his  great  mind  per- 
mitted it,  well  might  he  have  expressed  his  compassion, 
not  for  his  private  friends  only,  but  for  the  world — well 
might  he  have  said,  <  I  pity  you !  I  pity  England  !  I  pity 
Europe !  I  pity  the  human  race  !' — For  to  mankind  at 
large  his  death  must  be  a  source  of  regret,  whose  life  was 
employed  to  promote  their  benefit.  He  died  in  the  spirit 
of  peace,  struggling  to  extend  it  to  the  world.  Tranquil 
in  his  own  mind,  he  cherished  to  the  last  with  a  parental 
solicitude,  the  consoling  hope  to  give  tranquillity  to  na- 
tions. Let  us  trust  that  the  stroke  of  death,  which  has 
borne  him  from  us,  may  not  h^vc  left  peace,  and  the  dig- 
nified charities  of  human  nature,  as  it  were,  orphans  upon 
the  world. 

"  The  hour  is  not  far  distant  when  an  awful  knell  shall 
tell  you  that  the  unburicd  remains  of  your  revered  patriot 
are  passing  through  the  streets  to  that  sepulchral  home, 
where  your  kings — your  heroes — your  sages — and  your 
poets  lis,  and  where  they  are  to  be  honored  by  the  asso- 
ciation of  his  noble  remains — that  hour,  when,  however 
the  splendid  gaudiness  of  public  pageantry  may  be  avoid- 
ed, you — you — all  of  you  will  be  self-marshalled  In  reve- 
rential sorrow,  mute,  and  reflecting  on  your  mighty  loss. 

*'  I  have  step  by  step  followed  Mr.  Fox  through  the 
whole  course  of  his  political  career,  i>"d,  to  the  best  of  my 
poor  abilities,  supported  him  5"  every  one  of  those  mea- 
sures and  in  the  maintenap-^  of  every  one  of  those  princi- 
ples which  originallv  recommended  him  to,  and  so  long 
contir  urd  him  i«,  your  confidence  and  esteem.  It  is  true 
there  b->vcr  been  occasions  upon  which  I  have  differed  ivith 
him — -painful  recollection  of  the  most  painful  moments  of 
my  political  life !  Nor  were  there  wanting  those  who  en- 
deavoured to  represent  those  differences  as  a  departure 
from  the  homage,  to  which,  though  unclaimed  by  him,  his 
superior  mind  was  entitled,  and  from  the  allegiance  of 
friendship  v;hich  our  hearts  all  swore  to  him  ;  but  never 
was  the  genuine  and  confiding  texture  of  his  soul  more  ma- 
nifest than  on  such  occasions.     He  knew  that  nothing  on 


SPEAKER.  251 

earth  could  separate  or  detach  me  from  him  ;  and  he  re- 
sented insinuations  against  the  sincerity  and  integrity  of 
a  friend,  which  he  would  not  have  noticed  had  they  been 
pointed  against  himself.  With  such  a  man  to  have  battled 
in  the  cause  of  genuine  liberty — with  such  a  man  to  have 
struggled  against  the  inroads  of  oppression  and  corruption 
— with  such  an  example  before  me,  to  have  to  boast  that 
I  never  in  my  life  gave  one  vote  in  ParUament  that  was 
not  on  the  side  of  freedom,  is  the  congratulation  that  at- 
tends the  retrospect  of  my  public  life.  His  friendship  was 
the  pride  and  honor  of  my  days.  I  never,  for  one  mo- 
ment, regretted  to  share  with  him  the  difEculties,  the  ca- 
lumnies, and  sometimes  even  the  dangers  that  attended  an 
honorable  course.  And  now  reviewing  my  past  political 
life,  were  the  option  possible,  that  I  should  retread  the 
path,  I  solemnly  and  deliberately  declare,  that  I  would  pre- 
fer to  pursue  the  same  course — to  bear  up  under  the  same 
pressure — to  abide  by  the  same  principles — and  remain  by 
his  side,  an  exile  from  power,  distinction  and  emolument, 
rather  than  be,  at  this  moment,  a  splendid  example  of  suc- 
cessful servility,  or  prosperous  apostacy — though  clothed 
with  powers,  honors,  titles,  and  gorged  with  sinecures  and 
wealth  obtained  from  the  plunder  of  the  people. 

"  Before  I  entered  Parliament,  1  sought  him  out,  and 
had  the  honor  to  enjoy  his  cordial  friendship ;  and  that 
friendbhip  1  have  the  pride  and  pleasure  to  think  was  ne- 
ver for  a  moment  interrupted  to  the  latest  period  of  his 
life.  It  is  upon  the  same  ground  which  urged  me  to  look 
'after,  and  enabled  me  to  enjoy,  that  friendship,  that  I  ana 
now  induced  to  solicit  your  support.  An  attachment  to 
freedom,  and  a  determination  to  persevere  through  life  in 
the  principles  of  Mr.  Fox,  are  the  only  grounds  upon 
which  I  can  rest  a  pretension  to  your  confidence.  My 
honorable  friend  in  the  chair  has  talked  of  supplying  the 
loss  of  the  great  man  we  deplore  ;  but  that  is  quite  impos- 
sible. For,  even  in  the  scale  of  gradation,  all  men  with 
regard  to  him  are  on  a  level  ;  .;nd  thus  I  must  pronounce 
my  total  disqualification.  But  yet,  1  vvil!  yield  to  no  man  in  a 
zealous  regard  for  that  sacred  liberty,  which,  however  its 
cause  may  have  been  betrayed  by  treachery,  bedewed  with 
blood,  or  profaned  by  sacriieg-  id  other  nations,  shall  ever 
stand  in  my  estimation  as  the  highest  gift  which  the  Great 


252  AMERICAN 

Creator  ever  conferred  upon  man.  In  devotion  to  this 
principle  alone  do  I  presirme  to  think  myself  in  any  degree 
equal  to  your  late  illustrious  representative — to  that  man, 
who  in  powers  of  mind,  stood  completely  unequalled— 
who,  in  my  judgment,  was,  as  a  statesman,  superior  in  in- 
tellect, not  only  to  any  this  country  has  ever  produced,  but 
to  any  the  world  has  ever  witnessed." 

Extract  from  a  celebrated  Speech  of  Mr,  Curran^  on  a  mo- 
tion  to  release  Mr,  Justice  Johnson  from  illegal  im- 
prisonme7it. 

My  Lords — It  has  fallen  to  my  lot,  either  fortunately, 
or  unfortunately,  as  the  event  may  be,  to  rise  as  counsel 
for  my  client  on  this  most  important  and  momentous  occa- 
sion. I  appear  before  you,  my  lords,  in  consequence  of  a 
writ  issued  by  his  majesty,  commanding  that  cause  be 
shown  to  this  his  court,  why  his  subject  has  been  deprived  of 
his  liberty,  and  upon  the  cause  shown  in  obedience  to  this 
writ,  it  is  my  duty  to  address  you  on  the  most  awful  ques- 
tion, if  awfulness  is  to  be  judged  by  consequences  and  e- 
vents,  on  which  you  have  been  ever  called  upon  to  decide. 
— Sorry  am  I  that  the  task  has  not  been  confided  to  more 
adequate  powers  ;  but,  feeble  as  they  are,  they  will  at  least 
not  shrink  from  it.  I  move  you,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Just- 
ice Johnson  be  released  from  illegal  imprisonment. 

I  cannot  but  observe  the  sort  of  scenic  preparation  with 
which  this  sad  drama  is  sought  to  be  brought  forward. — 
In  part  I  approve  it.  In  part  it  excites  my  disgust  and  in- 
dignation. 1  am  glad  to  find  that  the  attorney  and  solici- 
tor general,  the  natural  and  official  prosecutors  for  the  state 
do  not  appear;  and  I  infer  from  their  absence,  that  his  ex- 
cellency, the  lord  lieutenant,  disclaims  any  personal  con- 
cern in  this  execrable  transaction.  I  think  it  does  him 
much  honor  ;  it  is  a  coi;duct  that  equally  agrees  with  the 
dignity  of  his  character  and  the  feelings  of  his  heart. — To 
his  private  virtues,  whenever  he  is  left  to  their  influence, 
I  willingly  concur  in  giving  the  most  unqualified  tribute 
of  respect.  And  I  do  firmly  believe,  it  is  with  no  small 
regret  that  he  suffers  his  name  to  be  even  formally  made 
use  of,  in  avowing  for  a  return  of  one  of  the  judges  of 


SPEAKER.  2^3 

the  land  with  as  much  indifference  and  fion  chalence  as  if 
he  were  a  beast  of  the  plough.  I  observe  too,  the  dead 
silence  into  which  the  public  is  frowned,  by  authority,  for 
the  sad  occasion.  No  man  dares  to  mutter ;  no  newspa- 
per dares  to  whisper  that  such  a  question  is  afloat.  It 
seems  an  inquiry  among  the  tombs,  or  rather  in  the  shades 
beyond  them. 

Ibant  sola  sub  nocte  per  umbram 

I  am  glad  it  is  so — I  am  glad  of  this  factitious  dumb- 
ness ;  for  if  murmurs  dared  to  become  audible,  my  voice 
would  be  too  feeble  to  drown  them  j  but  when  all  is  hush- 
ed— when  nature  sleeps — 

Cum  quies  mortalibus  aegris 

The  weakest  voice  is  heard — the  shepherd's  whistle 
shoots  across  the  listening  darkness  of  the  interminable 
heath,  and  gives  notice  that  the  wolf  is  upon  his  walk  ;  and 
the  same  gloom  and  stillness  that  tempt  the  monster  to 
come  abroad,  facilitate  the  communication  of  the  warning 
to  beware.  Yes,  through  that  silence  the  voice  shall  be 
heard  ;  yes,  through  th^t  silence,  the  shepherd  shall  be  put 
upon  his  guard  ;  yes,  through  that  silence  shall  the  felon 
savage  be  chased  into  the  toil.  Yes,  my  lords,  I  feel  my- 
self cheered  and  impressed  by  the  composed  and  digni- 
fied attention  with  which  I  see  you  are  disposed  to  hear  me 
on  the  most  important  question  that  has  ever  been  sub- 
jected to  your  consideration  ;  the  most  important  to  the 
dearest  rights  of  the  human  being ;  the  most  deeply  inte- 
resting and  animating  that  can  beat  in  his  heart,  or  burn 
upon  his  tongue — Oh!  how  recreating  is  it  to  feel  that  oc- 
casions may  arise  in  which  the  soul  of  man  may  reassume 
her  pretensions  ;  in  which  she  hears  the  voice  of  nature 
whisper  to  her,  gs  homini  sublime  dcdi  conhimque  tueri ; 
in  which  even  I  can  look  up  with  calm  security  to  the 
court,  and  down  with  the  most  profound  contempt  upon 
the  reptile  I  mean  to  tread  upon  !  I  say  reptile  ;  because, 
when  the  proudest  man  in  society  becomes  so  the  dupe  of 
his  childish  malice,  as  to  wish  to  inflict  on  the  object  of 
his  vengeance  the  poison  of  his  sting  ;  to  do  a  reptile's 
work,  he  mast  shrink  into  a  reptile's  dimensions  ;  and  so 
shrunk,  the  only  way  to  assail  him  is  to  tread  upon  him* 

Z 


254  AMERICAN 

But  to  the  subject ; — this  writ  of  habeas  corpus  has  had 
a  return.  Thatreturn  states,  that  lord  EUenborough,  chief 
justice  of  England,  issued  a  warrant  reciting  the  founda- 
tion of  this  dismal  transaction  :  that  one  of  the  clerks  of 
the  crown  office  had  certified  to  him,  that  an  indictment 
had  been  found  at  Westminster,  charging  the  honorable 
Robert  Johnson,  late  of  Westminster,  one  of  the  justices 
of  his  majesty's  court  of  common  pleas  in  Ireland,  with 
the  publication  of  certain  slanderous  libels  against  the 
government  of  that  country  ;  against  the  person  of  his 
excellency  lord  Hardwicke,  lord  lieutenant  of  that  coun- 
try ;  against  the  person  of  lord  Redesdale,  the  chancellor 
of  Ireland  ;  and  against  the  person  of  Mr.  Justice  Osborne, 
one  of  the  justices  of  the  court  of  king's  bench  in  Ireland. 
One  of  the  clerks  of  the  crown  office,  it  seems,  certified 
all  this  to  his  lordship.  How  many  of  these  there  are,  or 
who  they  are,  or  which  of  them  so  certified,  we  cannot, 
presume  to  guess,  because  the  learned  and  noble  lord  is 
silent  as  to  those  circumstances.  We  are  only  informed 
that  one  of  them  made  that  important  communication  to 
his  lordship.  It  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  information  giv- 
en to  one  of  Fielding's  justices  :  "did  not,"  says  his  wor- 
ship's wife,  "  the  man  with  the  wallet  make  his  fidavy 
that  you  was  a  vagram  ?"  I  suppose  it  was  some  such  pet- 
ty bag  officer  who  gave  lord  EUenborough  to  understand 
that  Mr.  Justice  Johnson  was  indicted.  And  being  thus 
given  to  understand,  and  be  informed,  he  issued  his  war- 
rant to  a  gentleman,  no  doubt  of  great  respectability,  Mr. 
Williams,  his  tipstaff,  to  take  the  body  of  Mr.  Justice 
Johnson,  ard  bring  him  before  a  magistrate,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  giving  bail  to  appear  within  the  first  eight  days  of 
this  term,  so  that  there  might  be  a  trial  within  the  sittings 
after  ;  and  if,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  he  should  be  con- 
victed, then  to  appear  on  the  return  of  the  postea,  to  be 
dealt  with  according  to  law. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  a  question  for  you  to  decide,  whe- 
ther that  warrant,  such  as  it  may  be,  is  not  now  absolutely 
spent ;  and,  if  not,  how  a  man  can  contrive  to  be  hereaf- 
ter in  England  on  a  day  that  is  past  ?  And  high  as  the  o- 
pinion  may  be  in  England  of  Irish  understanding,  it  will 
be  something  beyond  even  Irish  exactness  to  bind  him  to 
appear  in  England  not  a  fortnight  hence,  but  a  fortnight 


SPEAKER.  255 

ago. — I  wish,  my  lords,  we  had  the  art  of  giving  time 
this  retrogade  motion.  If  possessed  of  the  secret  we 
might  possibly  be  disposed  to  improve  it  from  fortnights 
into  years. — 

There  is  something  not  incurious  in  the  juxtaposition  of 
signatures.  The  warrant  is  signed  by  the  chief  justice  of 
all  England. — In  music,  the  ear  is  reconciled  to  strong 
transitions  of  key,  by  a  preparatory  resolution  of  the  inter- 
vening discords;  but  here,  alas  !  there  is  nothing  to  break 
the  fall :  the  august  title  of  Ellenborough  is  followed  by 
the  unadorned  name  of  brother  Bell,  the  sponsor  of  his 
lordship's  warrant.  Let  me  not,  however,  be  suffered  to 
deem  lightly  of  the  compeer  of  the  noble  and  learned  lord. 
Mr.  Justice  Bell  ought  to  be  a  lawyer ;  I  remember  him 
myself  long  a  crier,*  and  I  know  his  credit  with  the  state  ; 
he  has  had  a  noli  prosequi.  I  see  not  therefore  why  it 
may  not  fairly  be  said  *^  fortunati  ambo  /"  It  appears  by 
this  return,  that  Mr.  Justice  Bell  indorses  this  bill  of  la- 
ding to  another  consignee,  Mr.  Medlicot,a  most  respecta- 
ble gentleman  ;  he  describes  himself  upon  the  warrant, 
and  he  gives  a  delightful  specimen  of  the  administration 
of  justice,  and  the  calendar  of  saints  in  ofRce  ;  he  des- 
cribes himself  a  justice  and  a  peace  officer — that  is,  a  m^= 
gistrate  and  a  catchpole ;  so  that  he  may  receive  informa- 
tion as  a  justice  ;  if  he  can  v»rite,  he  may  draw  them  as 
a  clerk  ;  if  not,  he  can  execute  the  warrant  as  bailiff;  and, 
if  it  be  a  capital  offence,  you  may  see  the  culprit,  the  jus- 
tice, the  clerk,  the  bailiff,  and  the  hangman,  together  in 
the  same  cart  ;  and,  though  he  may  not  write,  he  may 
"  ride  and  tie  !"  What  a  pity  that  their  journey  should  not 
be  further  continued  together  !  I'hat,  as  they  had  been 
^'  lovely  in  their  lives,  so  in  their  deaths  they  might  not  be 
divided  !''  I  find,  my  lords,  I  have  undesignedly  raised  a 
Liugh  ;  never  did  I  less  feel  merriment. — let  me  not  be 
condemned — let  not  the  laugh  be  mistaken. — Never  was 
Mr.  Hume  more  just  than  when  he  says,  that  **  in  many 
things  the  extremes  are  nearer  to  one  another  than  the 
means."  Few  are  those  events  that  are  produced  by  vi<:e 
and  folly,  that  fire  the  heart  with  indignation,  that  do  not 
also  shake  the  sides  with  laughter.     So  when  the  two  fa- 

*  This  g-entleman  was  formerly  criei-  to  the  late  baron  Hamilton, 
when,  the  bcirou  went  circuit  as  a  judge. 


256  AMERICAN 

mous  moralists  of  old  beheld  the  sad  spectacle  of  life,  the 
one  burst  into  laughter,  the  other  melted  into  tears ;  they 
were  each  of  them  right,  and  equally  right. 

Si  c  red  as  utrlque 
Res  sunt  htamanae  flebile  ludibrium 

But  these  laughs  are  the  bitter  ireful  laughs  of  honest  in- 
dignation,— or  they  are  the  laughs  of  hectic  melancholy 
and  despair, 

Sfieech  of  Mr,  Grattan  in  the  British  Parliament  on  the 
Catholic  ^lestioii— April  22>d,  iai2. 

^  You  should  t  ver  beiir  in  mind  the  true  nature  and  ori- 
gm  of  your  connection  with  Ireland.  It  arose  out  of  pri- 
vilege, contract,  opportunity,  covenant,  expediency,  specu- 
lation—any thing  but  conquest.  You  never  conquered 
Ireland  ;  no  right  of  conquest  shook  the  right  of  property, 
and  if  they  had  a  property  which  they  were  justified  in 
concluding  to  be  sacred,  it  was  their  property  in  the  Gos- 
P^^*  ^.^y^^"  God  gave  man  a  Revelation,  he  gave  him  al- 
BO  a  light  by  which  to  read  it,  the  conscientious  interpre- 
tation of  his  own  reason.  The  Irishman  applies  to  his 
God,  without  thinking  it  necessary  to  have  a  license  from 
liis  king.  If  Parliament  interfere,  what  can  be  the  result 
of  such  interposition  ?  they  might  do  much  in  heaping  dis- 
qualification upon  disqualification  ;  they  might  assert  their 
political  omnipotence  within  the  regions  of  error,  but  their 
omnipotence  could  never  make  wrong  right.  In  disqua- 
lifying a  British  subject  on  account  of  his  religious  opin- 
ions, they  would  attack  the  principle  that  made  them  a 
Parliament,  and  disqualify  themselves.  I  admit  that  there 
may  possibly  exist  circumstances  connected  with  matters 
of  religious  opinion,  which  might  call  for  the  regulation  of 
the  Legislature  ;  but  those  are  such  only  as  essentially  af- 
fect the  allegiance  of  the  subject.  I  ask  you,  will  you  ar- 
gue the  rights  of  the  Catholics  upon  that  ground?  No; 
because  you  can  have  no  doubt  of  their  allegiance  ;  if  you 
will  not  read  the  history  of  past  years,  you  cannot  help 
reading  their  present  history  in  the  Gazette  of  every  pass- 
ing day.  You  cannot  help  knowing  that  Irishmen  arc  eve- 


SPEAKER,  257 

ry  day  bleeding  to  ensure  your  safety,  and  dying  to  ad- 
vance your  glory.  The  names  of  the  proscribed  appear 
in  the  honorable  nnemorials  of  every  Gazette,  to  shame  the 
proscription  that  robs  them  of  nobler  distinction,  and  you 
of  greater  strength.  This  is  no  new  objection,  I  remem- 
ber when  it  was  contended,  that  Irishmen  could  not  bear 
allegiance  to  an  English  government. — I  remember  when 
it  was  contended  that  no  Irishman  could  feel  attachment 
towards  a  Prince  of  the  House  of  Hanover  ;  but  time  has 
done  with  prejudice  what  reason  never  could  do.  Ireland 
has  proved  herself  capable  of  long  and  patient  allegiance. 
The  objection  has  died  in  its  own  folly  ;  but  folly  had  still 
other  objections  to  generate  and  to  destroy* — the  power  of 
the  Pope  was  called  in,  and  made  to  teem  with  phantoms 
against  the  peace  of  Protestantism.  Ireland,  said  these 
reasoners,  can  never  atnalgamate  with  England,  because  of 
her  acknowledgmentof  a  foreign  temporal  supremacy,  that 
can  at  any  time  arbitrarily  interfere  with  her  allegiance  to 
n  Protestant  king.  This  has  been  doubly  falsified — falsi- 
fied by  reasoning  that  proves  it  never  could  be  505  falsifi- 
ed by  fact,  ihat  shews  it  never  has  been  so :  if  it  had  been 
so,  Europe  could  not  have  existed  for  a  year — the  great 
fountains  of  social  intercourse  must  have  been  broken  up, 
and  a  moral  deluge  have  covered  the  face  of  the  nations ;  all 
the  communities  of  the  christian  world  must  have  crumbled 
into  the  ruins  of  one  great  moral  dissolution ;  but  the  objec- 
tion has  been  answered  ;  answered  with  a  solemnity  that  no- 
thing bat  the  horror  of  its  own  virulence  could  have  render- 
ed necessary  ;  it  has  been  answered  by  six  Universities,  Pa- 
ris, Louvain,  Douay,  Salamanca,  Padua,  Valladolid  ;  each 
and  all  denied  the  power  of  the  Pope,  the  dispensing  power  5 
each  and  all  affirmed,  that  every  Catholic  was  bound  irre- 
vocably by  his  oath  ;  this  was  their  answer,  and  they  gave 
it  with  all  horror  of  the  low,  uncharitable,  and  dark  suspi- 
cion that  could  have  suggested  the  bad  doubt  that  requir- 
ed it.  Thf  re  is  another  answer,  the  oath  which  your  own 
Acts  of  Parliament  have  required  of  them.  There  is  yet 
another,  the  acknowledgment  of  their  steady  faith  and  un- 
wavering allegiance  in  the  preambles  of  your  own  acts. 
There  is  still  another,  your  votes  of  thanks:  there  was  strong 
fact  against  v/eak  sophistry.  You  have  voted  thanks  year  af- 
ter year  to  armies  composed  of  Catholics,  for  victories  wob 

Z  2 


258  AMERICAX 

by  the  aid  of  Catholics !  What  were  all  these  :  Verdicts,  so 
many  verdicts,  verdicts  of  acquittal;  verdicts  found  by  their 
accusers.  There  then  stood  the  legislature,  with  the  pe- 
nal code  in  one  hand,  and  honorable  acquittal  in  the  other; 
the  one  gratefully  proclaimed,  but  the  other  superstitious- 
ly  and  iniquitously  adhered  to — but  the  innocence  and  the 
merits  of  the  Catholics  had  now  another  sanction  in  evi- 
dence, less  interested  and  more  decisive — this  evidence 
was  negatively  as  well  as  possitively  strong — they  had  first 
strong  negative  testimony:  Where  I  ask,  where  are  those 
Protestant  petitions  against  their  claims,  which  we  were 
told  would  have  by  this  time,  borne  down  your  table?  we 
were  told  in  the  confident  tone  of  prophecy,  that  England 
would  have  poured  in  her  petitions  from  all  counties, 
towns,  and  corporations,  against  the  claims  of  Ireland  ;  I 
ask,  where  are  those  petitions  ?  has  London,  her  mighty 
capital,  has  the  university  of  Dublin,  mocked  the  calami- 
ties of  your  country,  by  petitioning  in  favour  of  those  pre- 
judices that  would  render  us  less  able  to  redress  them  ? 
Have  the  people  of  England  raised  a  voice  against  their 
Catholic  feilovr-subjects  ?  No  ;  they  have  the  wisdom  to 
see  the  folly  of  robbing  the  Empire,  at  such  a  time,  of 
one-fourth  of  its  strength  on  account  of  speculative  doc- 
trines of  faith.  They  will  not  risk  a  kingdom  on  account  of 
old  men's  dreams  about  the  prevalence  of  the  Pope.  They 
will  not  sacrifice  an  empire  because  they  dislike  the  sacri- 
iice  of  the  Mass.  The  Church  too  have  acted  v.ith  the 
same  wisdom  that  the  people  have,  and  with  a  decency 
worthy  her  sacred  office.  We  have  not  seen  the  ecclesi- 
astical horn  raised  to  gather  together  the  materials  of  tu- 
mult— we  have  not  heard  it  sounded  so  as  to  thrill  through 
the  whole  sphere  of  religious  prejudice,  and  rouse  it  from 
the  centre  to  the  circumference.  We  no  longer  see  the 
pulpits  of  peace  hung  v/ith  the  emblems  and  banners  of 
division — or  hear  from  them  the  thunders  of  polemical  di- 
vinity. We  no  longer  witness  the  procession  of  a  set  of 
dull  divines  to  proclaim  their  zeal  for  the  Church  in  their 
animosity  to  the  Constitution,  and  their  meek  attachment 
to  their  own  faith,  in  their  damnation  of  every  other.  I 
ay  then  England  is  not  against  us.  She  has  put  ten  thou- 
and  signatures  upon  you  table  in  our  favour.  And  what 
ays  the  Protestant  interest  in  Ireland  I  Look  at  their  pe- 


SPEAKER.  259 

titlon — examine  the  names — the  houses — the  families — » 
'  Look  at  the  list  of  merchants — of  divines.  Look,  in  a 
word  at  Protestant  Ireland  calling  to  you  in  a  warning 
voice — telling  you  that  if  you  are  resolved  to  go  on  till 
ruin  breaks  with  a  fearful  surprise  upon  your  progress,  they 
will  go  on  with  you — they  must  partake  your  danger, 
though  they  will  not  share  your  guilt. 

Ireland,  with  her  Imperial  Crown,  now  stands  before 
you.  You  have  taken  from  her,  her  Parliament,  and  she 
appears  in  her  own  porson  at  your  bar.  Will  you  dismiss 
a  kingdom  without  a  hearing  ?  Is  this  your  answer  to  her 
j  zeal,  to  her  faith,  to  the  blood  that  has  so  profusely  graced 
your  march  to  victory — to  the  treasures  that  have  decked 
your  strength  in  peace.  Is  her  name  nothing — her  fate 
indifferent — her  contributions  insignificant — her  six  mil- 
lions revenue — her  ten  millions  trade — her  two  millions  ab- 
sentee — her  four  millions  loan?  Is  such  a  country  not  worth 
a  hearing?  Will  you,  can  you  dismiss  her  abruptly  from 
your  bar?  you   cannot  do  it — the  instinct  of  England  is 

against  it — we  may  be  outnumbered  now  and  again but 

in  calculating  the  amount  of  the  real  sentiments  of  the  peo- 
ple— the  cyphers  that  swell  the  evanescent  majorities  of 
an  evanescent  Minister,  go  for  nothing. 

Can  Ireland  forget  the  memorable  ?era  of  1788  ?^  Can 
others  forget  the  munificent  hospitality  with  which  she 
then  freely  gave  to  her  ihosen  hope  all  that  she  had  to 
give  ?  Can  Ireland  forget  the  spontaneous  and  glowing 
cordiality  wi;h  which  h;rr  favours  were  then  received? 
Never!  Never  !  Irishmen  grr%v  justly  proud  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  biring  subjects  of  a  gracious  predilection a 

predilection  that  required  no  apoiogy,  and  called  for  no 
rmuntiatioi) — a  predilection  that  did  equal  honor  to  him 
who  felt  it,  and  to  those  who  were  the  objects  of  it.  It  laid 
the  grounds  of  a  great  and  fervent  hope — all  a  nation's 
wishes  crowdit.g  to  a  point,  and  looking  forward  to  one 
I  event  as  the  great  coming  at  whieh  every  wound  was 
to  be  healed,  every  tear  to  be  wiped  away—the  hope  of 
that  hour  beamed  with  a  cheering  warmth  and  a  seduct- 
ive brilliancy.     Ireland  followed  it  with  all  her  heart a 

*  Alludin,^  to  the  Regency— then  Ireland  offered  a  power  without 
restraint  to  the  Prince  Of  Wales,  which  the  British  Parliament  had 
lettered. 


260  AMERICAN 

leading  light  through  the  wilderness,  and  brighter  in  ts 
gloom.  She  foUowccJ  it  over  a  wide  and  barren  waste  ; 
it  has  charmed  her  through  the  desert,  and  now  that  it  has 
led  her  to  the  confines  ot  light  and  darkness,  now  that  she 
is  on  the  borders  of  the  promised  land,  is  the  prospect  to 
be  suddenly  obscured,  and  the  fair  vision  of  Prmcelij  Faith 
to  vanish  for  ever  ? — I  will  not  believe  it — I  require  an 
act  of  Parliament  to  vouch  its  credibility — nay  more,  I 
demand  a  miracle  to  convince  me  that  it  is  possible  ! — So 
much  for  one  disappointment — if  you  bid  Ireland  despair 
— there  is  another,  the  Union.  I  speak  not  of  the  precise 
form  of  words  according  to  which  Ireland  covenanted  a- 
way  her  independence — but  I  say  this,  that  had  it  not  been 
for  the  expectation  of  the  removal  of  all  religious  disqua- 
lifications, Ireland  would  now  have  her  resident  Parlia- 
mert — Ireland  knows  this.  England  cannot  doubt  it.  I 
come,  therefore,  to  an  honorable  nation,  not  to  exact  the 
letter  of  the  bond,  but  the  spirit  of  the  covenant — you  got 
tlieir  Parliament,  because  they  thought  you  would  grant 
tncm  their  ric;hts  in  exchange — character  in  trade  is  wealth, 
it  Is  strength  in  politics — in  arms  it  is  the  glory  that  is  in- 
vincible. The  name  of  England  has  won  victories  in  fo- 
rcijin  cabinets — net  up  to  the  principle  that  made  the  men- 
tion of  you  formidable  abroad,  and  you  may  long^be  Eng- 
land— If  vou  refuse,  you  dissolve  the  union — you  destroy 
t!ie  principles  of  incorporation — a  form  of  words  cannot 
unite  where  facts  substantially  dissever — the  two  countries 
have  been  formally  united,  but  has  the  mere  force  of  form 
kept  them  together?  No,  the  union  has  been  kept  togeth- 
er by  expectancy,  and  must  be  dissolved  by  despair — two 
nations  cannot  exist  together  in  one  union  of  mere  Parlia- 
ment and  power,  from  v^hich  the  people  of  both  countries 
are  excluded — We  have  a  union  of  Parliament — we  have 
a  union  of  Power,  but  no  union  of  People — It  is  a  union 
that  makes  a  Parliament  more  handy  to  a  Minister,  but  it 
makes  the  People  nothing — the  integrity—the  heart  of  the 
gigantic  whole  that  could  put  forth  the  hundred  arms  for 
our  safety,  cease  to  beat— -the  pulse  of  life  is  still— let  the 
Constitution  circulate,  and  we  are  again  an  empire.  The 
Irish  Catholic  asks  for  rights— the  Irish  Protestant  asks 
for  consolidation— and  both  ask  for  the  integrity  of  the 
empire.     On  this  question  Ireland  is  united.     If  you  re- 


SPEAKER.  26t 

fuse — I  say  dissolve  the  union — it  must  end  in  separation 
— There  are  two  kinds  of  separation — separation  in  fact, 
and  separation  in  disposition.  You  are  undone  by  either. 
If  you  will  have  it  so,  Ireland  must  descend  into  the  grave  ; 
but  depend  upon  it,  that  the  gorgeous  empire  of  Great  Bri- 
tain must  soon  follow. — The  day  on  which  you  decide  her 
doom,  you  decide  your  own. — Your  common  interest  is 
placed  in  the  same  balance — throw  Ireland  out  of  the 
scale — weigh  England  and  she  will  be  found  wanting. 
After  your  folly  has  thus  dug  your  grave,  your  historian 
muy  easily  write  your  epitaph.  "  Htre  lies  all  that  re- 
mains of  England — England  taxed  America  and  lost  her 
— disqualified  Ireland  and  lost  her,  and  then  died  the 
death  !" 

You  say  you  disqualify  for  general  good — I  deny  it — 
you  cannot  make  laws  God  cannot  make — God  cannot 
make  arbitrary  laws — you  have,  I  admit  a  right  to  regu- 
late the  qualification — and  why  ?  because  you  are  a  trus- 
tee for  the  privilege  that  qualifies — but  you  cannot  arm 
the  qualification  against  the  privilege — you  cannot  make 
the  qualification  destroy  the  privilege — when  you  attempt 
to  do  so — you  exceed  your  power — you  say,  you  legislate 
for  the  general  good  ?  what  is  the  modern  acceptation  of 
the  general  good  ? — the  power  of  the  state  opposed  to  the 
liberties  of  the  people — for  here  we  have  the  power  of  a 
sect  labouring  to  work  the  eternal  deprivation  of  a  people. 
There  are  two  species  of  laws — the  laws  of  municipalities 
— the  laws  of  God — the  former,  to  be  good  mast  rest  on 
the  principles  of  the  latter — but  when  you  would  rest  your 
establishments  (as  you  call  them)  upom  the  one  end  oi 
prescripti\e  exclusion,  the  law  of  nature  must  prevail,  the 
State  will  reel  to  its  due  centre  of  gravit}-,  and  God  will 
vindicate  his  own  laws — by  such  laws  you  exceed  your 
powers,  you  oppose  the  Almighty  himself,  and  though 
you  had  a  host  of  miires  on  your  side,  you  strike  God 
out  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitution,  and  liberty  out  of  the 
political — Nomination  is  the  right  of  the  no.ninator — eli- 
gibility is  the  right  of  the  Commons — von  have  made  the 
Catholics  a  part  of  the  Commons  of  the  Empire  by  your 
own  act,  and  you  cannot  deny  tht-m  the  constilutional  pri- 
vileges belonging  to  the  rank  you  have  given  them  iu 
the  Constitution.     Nothing  m  their  mere  religious  creed 


262  AMERICAN 

could  be  gravely  supposed  to  vitiate  their  claimr     The 
State  has  nothing  to  do  with  their  seven  Sacraments.  Ex- 
communications have  been  spoken  of  as  a  formidable  pow- 
er; the  parishioner  excommunicated  has  his  action  against 
the  priest — he  actually  recovered  damages  recently  in  Ire- 
land.    But  the  power  of  the  Pope  divides  their  allegi- 
ance !  Has  it  divided  their  allegiance  to  any  other  Catho- 
lic country  ?  If  it  has,  why  is  the  Pope,  whom  the  Pe- 
tition from  Cambridge  describes  as  enjoying  greater  pow- 
er than  ever — why  is  he  now  a  state  prisoner  in  France  ? 
If  the  Pope  be  great  in  power,  how  much  greater  must  be 
the  king  of  Spain  who  is  also  a  state  prisoner.     You  are 
paying  twenty  millions  in  support  of  the  war  in  Spain  with- 
out any  stipulation  about  the  Pope.  Why  are  you  not  ap- 
prehensive that  you  are  fighting  for  the  reversionary  in- 
terests of  France  in  the  Peninsula  ?  Thus  did  you  tread 
upon  this  bigotry  whenever  it  stood  in  your  way,  and  ne- 
ver stooped  to  raise  it,  but  you  would  lift  it  against  the 
claims  of  your  fellow-subjects.     You  talk  of  difficulty.    I 
answer,  go  into  the  Committee,  and  all  difficulty  vanishes* 
The  only  solid  obstacle  to  peace  at  home  and  strength  a- 
broad,  are  the  Ministers  themselves.     You  say  you  tole- 
rate their  religion — I  say  you  pumsh  it.     What !  am  I  in 
an  assembly  of  Englishmen  ?  Is  it  in  a  British  Parliament 
that  it  is  doubted  whether  civil  disabilities  be  a  grievance? 
Is  the  right  of  representation  nothing?  the  right  of  trial 
by  jury  nothing?  The  Irish  Catholic  has  not  the  right  of 
trial  by  his  Peers — he  has  not  the  privilege  of  a  foreigner 
- — of  the  inidiatce  lingua: — tried  by  a  jury  of  Protestants, 
packed  by  a  partizan  Sheriff.     I  speak  of  trials  aSfecting 
thtir  religious  interests.     But  we  were  told,  that  was  am- 
bition of  power,  not  an  anxiety  for  protection.     Why,  it 
v/as  ambition — the  ambition  of  a  man  not  to  be  robbed — 
of  a  woman  not  to  be  ravished — the  ambition  of  life,  lib- 
erty,  limbs  and  property.     This  was  the  ambition,  and 
what  v/ere  we  to  think  of  his  idea  of  glory,  who  could  call 
tliis  ambition?   W^e  who  support,  and  they  who  opposed 
these  Petitions,  alike  call  for  security.     We  call  for  secu- 
rity against  civil  servitude — against  discontent  in  Ireland, 
and  danger  to  the  Empire.     We  call  for  security  againot 
the  mad  policy  that  would  make  the  British  name  in  Ire- 
land odious—the  iJritioh  faith  in  Ireland  equivocal — that 


SPEAKER.  263 

would  disinherit  Ireland  of  her  hopes  and  policy,  the  nerve 
that  binds  the  two  countries  together.  I  call  upon  them 
to  shew  the  danger.  Let  them  answer  this  by  fact — by 
argument,  and  not  by  sending  out  a  crowd  of  ghosts  and 
hobgoblings,  fears  too  shadowy  to  be  grasped  at.  Is  there 
danger  in  the  Eucharist  ?  in  the  adoration  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  ?  In  the  family  of  the  Pretender?  in  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Pope  ?  admit  that  there  were,  they  are  but 
prospective,  and  we  should  still  go  into  the  Committee. 
As  to  the  Feto,  you  might  have  had  it  perhaps  ;  but  if  you 
let  the  time  go  by,  at  which  alone  it  might  have  been  ob- 
tained, you  are  not  to  blame  those  who  exhorted  you  then 
to  take  it ;  above  all,  think  it  not  for  your  safety  to  teach 
England  to  distrust  Ireland,  or  Ireland  to  hate  England. 
If  you  persuade  the  wife  that  her  husband  hates  her,  and 
the  husband  that  he  has  lost  his  wife's  affections,  what 
becomes  of  the  marriage  ?  I  respect  the  Universities  of 
England  even  in  their  errors  ;  I  respect,  I  love,  all  connect- 
ed with  the  city  of  Dublin,  but  when  they  p-^tition  for  a 
continuance  of  the  Catholic  disabilities  however  good  their 
intentions,  rely  upon  it  they  petition  for  separation.  Eng- 
land has  not  lent  her  sanction  to  this  prejudice — I  cannot 
believe  she  ever  will — let  her  give  but  her  confidence  to 
Ireland,  and  they  may  both  defy  the  world — it  will  be  so 
— it  must  be  so — this  stately  empire  that  stood  erect  a- 
gainst  the  shock  of  the  mighty  G.tul,  and  his  millions  in 
arms — will  never  wither  and  consume  away  before  a  phan- 
tom— will  never  fall  in  pieces  at  the  touch  of  Harlequin's 
wand — I  will  as  soon  believe  that  the  whole  British  navy 
could  be  swept  from  the  surface  of  the  deep  it  rules,  by 
the  blast  of  a  storm  raised  by  witches  ! — Let  England  but 
be  wise,  Ireland  will  be  happy,  and  the  empire  immortal. 
In  answer  to  every  thing  which  had  been  urged  against 
the  admission  of  Roman-Catholics  to  the  Senate,  the  Bench 
and  the  Army,  I  will  tell  the  House  to  ask  the  Admi- 
rals and  Generals  under  whom  they  have  served,  for  their 
character ;  to  look  into  the  public  papers  for  the  numbers 
who  every  day  die  in  the  service  of  their  country  ;  to  ask 
how  many  oliicers  at  present  lie  covered  with  wounds. 
Ask  their  country  for  their  character — ask  the  Noblemen 
and  Gentlemen  of  Ireland — the  Houses  of  Leinster  and 
Orniond.    Ask  those  men  who  bear  the  brunt  of  the  dun- 


264  AMERICAN 

ger,  and  they  \vill  tell  you — Don't  hazard  the  safety  of 
Ireland  and  England  on  such  arguments.  I  appeal  to  the 
English  nation — I  appeal  to  Parlianient — I  appeal  to  the 
hospitals  now  filled  with  wounded  Catholics.  I  appeal  to 
the  fields  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  drenched  with  their  blood 

I  appeal  to  those  gallant  men  who  so  oft  have  carried 

the  British  thunder  triumphant  over  the  waters  of  the  deep 
— I  appeal  to  you  against  a  policy  which  invites  one  half 
the  nation  to  cut  the  throats  of  the  other — I  appeal  to  you 
to  guard  and  protect  that  country  against  such  a  disgusting 
degradation. — you  come  down  here  this  day  to  decide  an 
Irish  question,  and  I  will  tell  you  that  the  whole  of  the 
case  may  be  comprized  in  one  sentence  ;  you  are  both  ru- 
ined unless  you  unite—and  Ireland  answers  you— We  will 
have  our  liberties,  and  our  lives  are  at  your  service. 


Dr»  DocWs  Address  to  the  Court  before  his  receivhig-  sen- 
tence  of  Death— 1777. 

''  My  Lord— I  now  stand  before  you  a  dreadful  exam- 
ple of  human  infirmity.  I  entered  "upon  public  life  with 
the  expectations  common  to  young  men  whose  education 
has  been  liberal,  and  whose  abilities  have  been  flattered  ; 
and  v/hen  1  became  a  clergyman,  I  considered  myself  as 
not  impairing  the  dignity  of  the  order.  I  was  not  an  idle, 
nor  I  hope,  an  useless  minister:  I  taught  the  truths  of 
Christianity  with  the  zeal  of  conviction,  and  the  authority 
of.  innocence.  My  labours  were  approved— my  pulpit 
became  popular  ;  and,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  that  of 
those  who  heard  me,  some  have  been  preserved  from  sin, 
and  some  have  been  reclaimed.— Condescend,  my  lord, 
to  think,  if  these  considerations  aggravate  my  crime,  how 
much  they  must  embitter  my  punishment  !  Being  distin- 
guished and  elevated  by  the  confidence  of  mankind,  I  had 
too  much  confidence  in  myself,  and  thinking  my  integrity, 
%vhat  others  thought  it,  established  in  sincerity,  and  forti- 
fied by  religion,  I  did  not  consider  the  danger  of  vanity, 
nor  suspect  the  deceitfulness  of  my  own  heart.  The  day 
of  conflict  came,  in  which  temptation  seized  and  over- 
whelmed me  !  I  committed  the  crime,  which  I  entreat 
your  lordship  to  believe  that  my  conscience  hourly  repre- 


SPEAKER.  265 

sents  to  me  in  Its  full  bulk  of  mischief  and  malignity. — 
Many  have  been  overpowered  by  temptation,  who  are 
now  among  the  penitent  in  heaven  !  To  an  act  now  wait- 
ing the  decision  of  vindictive  justice,  I  will  not  presume 
to  oppose  the  counterbalance  of  almost  thirty  years  (a 
great  part  of  the  life  of  man)  passed  in  exciting  and  ex- 
ercising charity— in  relieving  such  distresses  as  I  now  feel 
-—in  administering  those  consolations  which  I  now  want. 
I  will  not  otherwise  extenuate  my  offence,  than  by  declar- 
ing, what  I  hope  will  appear  to  many,  and  what  many  cir- 
cumstances make  probable,  that  I  did  not  intend  finally  to 
defraud  :  nor  will  it  become  me  to  apportion  my  own 
punishment,  by  alleging  that  my  sufferings  have  been  not 
much  less  than  my  guilt.  I  have  fallen  from  a  reputation, 
which  ought  to  have  made  me  cautious,  and  from  a  for- 
tune, which  ought  to  have  given  me  content.  I  am  sunk 
at  once  into  poverty  and  scorn  :  my  name  and  my  crime 
fill  the  ballads  in  the  streets  ;  the  sport  of  the  thoughtless 
and  the  triumph  of  the  wicked  !  It  may  seem  strange,  my 
lord,  that,  remembering  what  I  have  lately  been,  I  should 
still  wish  to  continue  what  I  am :  but  contempt  of  death, 
how  speciously  soever  it  may  mingle  with  heathen  virtues, 
has  nothing  in  it  suitable  to  christian  penitence.  Many 
motives  impel  me  to  beg  earnestly  for  life.  I  feel  the  na- 
tural horror  of  a  violent  death,  the  universal  dread  of  un- 
timely dissolution.  I  am  desirous  to  recompense  the  inju- 
ry I  have  done  to  the  clergy,  to  the  world,  and  to  religion  ; 
and  to  efface  the  scandal  of  my  crime,  by  the  example  of 
my  repentance  :  but,  above  all,  I  wish  to  die  with  thoughts 
more  composed,  and  calmer  preparation.— The  gloom  and 
confusion  of  a  prison,  the  anxiety  of  a  ti'Ial,  the  horrors  of 
suspense,  and  the  inevitable  vicissitudt^s  of  passion,  leave 
not  the  mind  in  due  disposition  for  the  holy  exercises  of 
prayer,  and  self  examination.— Let  not  a  little  life  be  de- 
nied me,  in  which  I  may,  by  meditation  and  contrition, 
prepare  myself  to  stand  at  the  tribunal  of  Omnipotence, 
and  support  the  presence  of  that  judge,  who  shall  distri- 
bute to  all  according  to  their  works — who  will  receive  and 
pardon  the  repenting  sinner,  and  from  whom  the  merci- 
ful shall  obtain  mercy  !  For  these  reasons,  my  lord,  a- 
midst  shame  and  misery,  I  yet  wish  to  live  j  and  most 

A  A 


266  V^MERICAN 

humbly  imj^lore,  that  I  may  be   recommended  by  your 
lordship  to  the  clemency  of  his  majesty." 


Speech  of  Mr,  Home  on  the  trial  of  Mr,  Barbot^for  kill- 
mg  Mr,  Mills  hi  a  Duel— 17 5Z, 

"  How  is  the  name  of  honor  prostituted  !  Can  honor  be 
the  savage  resolution,  the  brutal  fierceness  of  a  revenge- 
ful spirit  ?  True  honor  is  manifested  in  a  steady,  uniform 
train  of  actions,  attended  by  justice,  and  directed  by  pru- 
dence. Is  this  the  conduct  of  the  duellist  ?  will  justice 
support  him  in  robbing  the  community  of  an  able  and 
useful  member  ?  and  in  depriving  the  poor  of  a  benefac- 
tor t  will  it  support  him  in  preparing  affliction  for  the  wi- 
dow's heart  ?  in  filling  the  orphan's  eyes  with  tears  ?  Will 
justice  acquit  him  for  enlarging  the  punishment  beyond 
the  offence  ?  will  it  permit  him,  for,  perhaps,  a  rash  word 
that  may  admit  of  an  apology,  an  unadvised  action  that 
may  be  retrieved,  or  an  injury  that  may  be  compensated, 
to  cut  off  a  man  before  his  days  be  half  numbered,  and  for 
a  temporary  fault  inflict  an  endless  punishment  ?  On  the 
other  hand,  will  prudence  bear  him  out  in  risking  an  infa- 
mous death  if  he  succeeds  in  the  duel?  but  if  he  falls,  will 
it  plead  his  pardon  at  a  more  awful  tribunal,  for  rushing 
into  the  presence  of  an  offended  God  ? 

"  Senseless  as  this  notion  of  honor  is,  it  unhappily  has 
its  advocates  among  us  :  but  for  the  prevalence  of  such  a 
notion,  how  could  the  amiable  person,  whose  death  has 
made  the  solemn  business  of  this  day,  be  lost  to  his  coun- 
try, his  family,  and  his  friends  ?  Would  to  God  that  I  was 
a  master  of  words,  and  it  could  be  indulged  to  the  tender- 
ness of  a  friend  to  pay  a  tribute  to  his  memory  !  I  might 
then  endeavour  to  set  him  full  before  you  in  the  variety  of 
his  excellence  j  but  as  this  would  be  venturing  too  far,  I 
can  only  lament  that  such  virtue  had  not  a  longer  date :  that 
this  good  man  was  cut  off  in  the  strength  of  his  age,  ere 
half  his  glass  was  run  :  when  his  heart  was  projecting  and 
executing  schemes  to  relieve  distress,  and  by  the  most  sur- 
prising acts  of  beneficence,  vindicating  the  bounty  of  Pro- 
vidence for  heaping  wealth  upon  him. 


SPEAKER.  267 

"  Duelling  seefhs  to  be  an  unnatural  graft  upon  genuine 
courage,  and  the  growth  of  a  barbarous  age.  The  polite 
nations  of  Greece  and  Rome  knew  nothing  of  it :  they  re- 
served their  bravery  for  the  enemies  of  their  countrv,  and 
then  were  prodigal  of  their  blood.  These  brave  people 
set  Honor  up  as  a  guardian  genius  of  the  public,  to  hu- 
manize their  passions,  to  preserve  their  truth  unblemished, 
and  to  teach  them  to  value  life  only  as  useful  to  their  coun- 
try. The  modern  heroes  dress  it  up  like  one  ol  the  dte- 
mons  of  superstition  besmeared  with  blood,  and  delight- 
ing in  human  sacrifice.'* 


Speech  of  Mr,  Noland  on  the  passage  of  the  BUI  to  suppress 
Duellings  in  the  Virginia  Legislature, 

"  Mr.  Speaker — The  bill  which  has  been  read,  is  one 
which  claims  the  serious  attention  of  this  house  :  it  is  one 
in  which  every  member  of  this  body,  in  which  every  citi- 
zen of  Virginia  is  deeply  interested.  The  practice  of 
duelling  seems  to  me  but  an  unnatural  graft  on  genuine 
courage,  growing  out  of  a  barbarous  age  ;  for  we  find  that 
it  was  first  introduced  by  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  during 
the  days  of  their  ignorance  and  barbarism.  The  polite 
and  polished  nations  of  Greece  and  Rome,  who  were  ever 
prodigal  of  their  blood  when  in  defence  of  their  country's 
rights,  knew  nothing  of  this  detestable  practice,  which  ap- 
pears to  me  to  be  built  on  an  infinity  of  absurdities  :  be- 
cause while  it  seems  to  suppose,  that  a  man's  honor 
ought  to  be  dearer  to  him  than  his  life,  it  at  the  same  time 
supposes,  that  his  honor  is  in  the  power  of  every  unprin- 
cipled villain  that  can  invent  or  tell  a  lie,  or  every  careless 
or  ill-bred  person  that  may  josde  him  in  his  way  :  it  sup- 
poses that  a  lie  may  become  true  and  honorable,  provided 
the  person  who  tells  it  is  willing  to  fight  in  support  of  it ; 
and  that  any  crime  whatever  may  become  honorable,  by 
fighting  in  its  defence;  it  supposes  that  the  man  who  is 
covered  with  guilt,  who  has  wounded  the  peace  of  his 
friend,  by  staining  the  character  of  his  \Mfe,  or  of  his 
daughter,  becomes  at  once  an  honorable  man,  by  heroically 
washing  out  those  stains,  in  the  blood  of  the  husband  or 
the  father  :  it  farther  supposes,  that  it  is  better  for  a  man. 


268  AMERICAN 

to  be  condemned  by  his  own  conscience,  and  by  the  vir- 
tuous and  rational  part  of  mankind  than  to  suffer  one  mq*- 
inent  n  the  opinion  of  the  advocates  for  duelling  ; — final- 
ly, that  stetl  and  gunpowder  are  the  true  diagnosticks  of 
innocence  and  moral  excellency.  If,  sir,  having  seized  the 
villain  who  have  violated  my  wife,  I  should  bring  him  be- 
fore a  tribunal  of  justice,  what  would  be  your  opinion  of 
the  judge  who  should  order  that  I,  the  innocent,  injured 
man  must  cast  lots  with  the  guilty,  which  of  us  must  die. 
—Would  not  your  heart  chill  at  such  a  sentence  ?  Would 
not  you  pronounce  it  contrary  to  reason,  to  common  sense 
and  justice?  You  surely  would.  In  the  case  of  duelling, 
the  public  is  the  judge.  I  receive  an  injury,  for  which 
nothing  but  life  can  atone,  I  do  not  appeal  to  the  public  ; 
no,  sir,  the  public  officiously  interferes  and  condemns  me, 
under  the  penalty  of  perpetual  disgrace,  to  cast  lots  with 
the  aggressor  which  of  us  must  die.  Was  there  ever  any 
thing  more  preposterous!  more  abominably  absurd  ! 

It  is  the  opinion  of  many,  sir,  that  duelling  is  an  evil, 
which  will  correct  itself;  while  others  say,  it  is  of  little 
concern  to  the  rational  and  virtuous  part  of  mankind,  in 
v»'hat  manner  knaves  and  fools  may  think  proper  to  rid  the 
world  of  each  other,  as  it  will  not  deprive  society  of  one 
valuable  member;  but  daily  experience  convinces  us,  that 
both  these  opinions  are  incorrect ;  for  while  the  evil  is 
growing  to  an  alarming  height,  we  find  that  some  of  our 
best  citizens  have  exposed  their  individual  lives,  while 
others  have  fallen  victims,  to  this  abominable  practice  ; 
and  will  the  collected  wisdom  of  this  commonwealth  make 
no  effort  to  suppress  this  sanguinary  and  growing  evil  ? 
Will  the  enlightened  legislature  of  Virginia  make  no  stand 
against  the  current  of  public  opinion  ?  I  hope — I  trust 
they  will.  Sir,  so  long  as  it  is  believed  that  the  practice 
of  duelling  is  sanctioned  by  public  opinion,  there  is  no 
man,  who  is  anxious  to  maintain  his  social  standing,  can 
refuse,  what  is  termed  an  honorable  call.  No  matter  how 
much  his  moral  and  religious  principles  may  be  opposed 
to  the  practice  ;  no  matter  though  he  may  have  a  wife  and 
children  deper.ling  on  his  exertions  for  their  daily  bread  ; 
no  matter  how  great  claims  his  country  may  have  on  his 
talents,  in  critical  and  trying  times,  he  loses  sight  of  all  in 
the  dreadful  idea  of   being  stigmatized  as  a  coward.- 


SPEAKER,  269 

PiUJusque  letho  Jlagitium  timet — he  seizes  the  f;ital  wea- 
pon— he  marches  to  the  combat,  receives  the  mortal 
wound,  and  leaves  a  disconsolate  widow  and  a  number  o£ 
helpless  orphans  to  mourn  their  irreparable  loss.  This,  sir, 
is  not  fancy,  these  are  scenes  that  frequently,  very  fre- 
quently pass  in  review  before  us. — Pass  this  bill,  sir,  and 
you  put  a  stop  to  the  evil — pass  this  bill  and  you  place  a 
shield  between  the  man  of  feeling  and  the  public  opiniou 
— you  raise  a  barrier  in  the  road  to  honor  and  prefer- 
ment, at  which  the  ambitious  man  will  pause  and  reflect 
ere  he  rashly  engages  in  a  duel — pass  this  bill  and  I  will 
venture  to  predict,  that  you  will  preserve  the  lives  of  ma- 
ny, very  mony  valuable  citizens — Had  a  similar  law  passed 
at  your  last  session,  Mr.  Speaker,  it  would  have  been  at- 
tended with  the  best  of  consequences— We  should  not 
now  be  lamenting  the  loss  of  a  Pope,  a  Hooe,  and  a 
Smith — On  us  in  part  rests  the  blame  of  robbing  society 
of  those  able  and  useful  members — on  us,  sir,  in  part, 
rests  the  blame  of  preparing  aiiliction  for  the  widow's 
heart,  of  filling  the  orphan^s  eye  with  tears,  and  bringing 
trouble  and  misfortune  on  numerous  relatives.  As  fathers 
then,  as  brothers,  as  men  and  as  legislators,  I  call  on  this 
house  to  suppress  an  evil  which  strikes  at  you  in  all  these 
tender  relations — -I  call  on  you  to  raise  your  hands  against 
a  crime,  the  disgrace  of  the  land  and  the  scourge  of  our 
peace — I  call  on  you  to  set  an  example  worthy  of  your- 
selves and  of  those  you  represent ;  and  should  this  bill  not 
have  the  desired  eflect,  you  will  enjoy  the  consolation  of 
having  performed  your  duty.  Before  I  sit  down,  I  give 
notice,  I  shall  call  for  the  ayes  and  noes.  I  am  anxious 
to  have  my  name  recorded  on  this  question — I  wish  to 
enter  my  protest  against  duelling.  There  are  some  ge:ii- 
tltmen,  Mr.  Speaker,  far  be  it  from  me  to  insinuate  that 
there  are  any  in  this  assembly,  who  though  opposed  to  the 
principle  of' duelling,  do  not  wish  to  proclaim  their  senti- 
nients  to  the  world,  lest  tliey  should  be  suspected  of  a  want 
of  fortitude  :  I  sir,  have  no  such  fears :  for  I  never  did  sup- 
pose, the  fighting  of  a  duel,  a  mark  of  fortitude— No,  sir, 
true  fortitude  is  a  cardinal  virtue,  depending  on,  and  inse- 
parable from  other  virtues — it  is  that  firm  manly  intrepidity 
of  suul,  which  enables  us  to  meet  danger  in  critical  and  try- 
ing situations — it  is  the  virtuous  man's  shield,  by  which  he 

A  A  2. 


270  AMERICAN 

defends  himself  from  the  evils  of  the  world — it  is  the  an- 
chor which  keeps  him  steady  amidst  the  storms  and  hurri- 
canes of  life.  The  intrepidity  or  courage  of  a  duellist  al- 
though it  seems  to  imitate,  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  virtue. 3 
because  it  is  not  the  object  of  moral  virtue.'^ 


Extract  from  a  Speech  of  Lord  Stanhope  on  Neutral  Rights. 

My  Lords, — I  rise,  to  bring  forward  the  motion  of 
which  I  have  given  previous  notice,  respecting  a  resolu- 
tion that  all  independent  nations  should  be  treated  upon 
the  principle  of  perfect  equality  and  complete  reciprority. 
In  proposing  this  resolution  to  the  house,  1  have  not  mere- 
ly in  my  eye  the  circumstances  in  which  we  now  stand, 
with  regard  to  America :  The  principle  to  which  I  allude 
should,  in  my  opinion,  be  extended  to  all  states  and  na- 
tions indiscriminately,  and  I  feel  the  most  sanguine  hope 
that  the  right  honorable  members  of  this  house  are  prepar- 
ed to  give  it  that  due  attention  which  its  urgency  requires 
and  which  Great-Britain  demands.  In  the  ftrst  place,  my 
lords,  I  cannot  help  noticing  the  absence  of  ministers  on 
this  important  occasion :  but  I  have  already  had  occasion 
to  observe,  that  they  seem  anxious  to  avoid  all  discussions 
on  this  topic.  I  will  not  say  that  their  conduct  is  impru- 
dent; but  whatever  it  may  be;  I  feel  it  incumbent  on  me 
to  express  my  sentiments,  when  the  voice  of  such  an  im- 
portant, and  imperious  duty  calls  upon  me  to  express  them» 
I  must  therefore,  my  lords,  most  earnestly  deprecate  a  war 
with  America,  and  I  trust  the  house  will  as  earnestly  u- 
nite  with  me  in  deprecating  thfit  dreadful  calamity,  when 
they  duly  consider  the  many  difficulties  and  dangers  with 
which  we  are  already  he-set.  The  right  honorable  mem- 
bers of  this  house  must  recollect,  that  in  times  of  scarcity, 
our  principal  relief  was  derived  first  from  Poland,  next 
from  America.  Poland  is  now  shut  against  us  by  the 
influence  of  our  enemy,  and  shall  we  also  shut  against  us 
the  pcits  of  America,  by  our  own  folly.  If,  my  lord'i,  the 
.ministers  are  bent  on  this  dreadful  alternative,  it  needs 
not  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  neither  need  we  turn  over  the 
leaves  of  fate's  eventful  volume,  to  know  what  will  be  the 
coiisequence.  If  the  Baltic  is  closed  against  you,  if  by  the 


SPEAKER.  271 

frantic  and  transient  energy  of  intoxicated  rag?,  you  should 
shut  the  ports  of  America  on  your  commerce,  whence  are 
you  to  derive  materials  and  stores  for  your  naval  arsenals, 
if  the  north  of  Europe  and  North  America  are  to  refuse 
us  these  supplies.  Do  you  not,  my  lords,  plainly  discover, 
for  I  trust  you  have  not  yet  to  learn,  that  your  enemy  has 
been  carrying  on  a  war  against  your  finances  and  resourc- 
es. To  what  seas  will  you  waft  your  commerce  ;  from 
whence  will  your  resources  be  derived,  what  will  become 
of  the  greatness  and  security  of  England,  when  our  navy, 
the  source  of  our  pride,  the  source  of  our  strength  and 
wealth  is  gone  ?  Are  not  these  serious  considerations  ?  Do 
they  not  demand  your  most  serious  attention  ?  Do  they 
not  require  your  cool  and  candid  discussion?  Where  is 
the  minister — who  is  the  minister  that  will  dare  to  pol- 
lute the  ear  of  majesty  with  the  name  of  war  with  Ameri- 
ca ?  Why  are  they  not  here  this  day  to  answer  for  them- 
selves ;  to  point  out  to  us  their  future  resources  ?  I  will 
now  only  remark,  that  as  all  individuals,  whether  high  or 
low,  poor  or  rich,  are  the  same  in  the  eye  of  Almighty 
God  ;  so  nations  whether  extremely  powerful  or  weak, 
whether  opulent  or  poor,  should  be  the  same  in  the  con- 
templation of  the  law  of  nations.  This  then,  my  lords,  is 
the  principle  upon  which  my  mind  rests,  and  upon  which 
I  ground  the  resolution  I  h  ive  now  to  move,  and  as  I 
have  the  pleasing  satisfaction  to  see  every  attention  paid  to 
the  few  serious  and  searching  remarks  that  I  have  just 
made — I  move,  my  lords,  that  this  day,  in  the  presence  of 
God  and  man,  it  be  resolved  that  the  principle  upon  which 
we  shall  act  towards  indi^pendent  nations  at  peace  with 
the  British  government,  shall  be  a  principle  of  perfect  e- 
quality  and  complete  reciprocity. 


Extract  from  the  Speech  qfWiUiam  Livingston^  Esq,  GoV' 
ernor  ofNexv-Jerseij,^  to  the  Council^  and  General  Assem-- 
bly  of  the  State, 

Gendemen, — Conceiving  it  my  duty  to  state,  ray  sen- 
ments  on  the  present  situation  of  affairs,  between  Great 
Britain  and  America,  you  will  excuse  my  giving  you  the 
trouble'of  attending  for  that  purpose* 


2rJ  AMERICAN 

After  deploring  with  you  the  desolation  spread  thi'ough 
part  of  this  state,  by  an  unrelenting  enemy,  who  have  mark- 
ed their  progress  with  a  devastation  unknown  to  civilized 
nations ;  I  congratulate  you  on  the  success,  against  them 
at  Trenton  and  the  victory  obtained  at  Princeton,  by  the 
gallant  troops  under  Washington. 

The  disgust  they  have  given  to  their  ov/n  confederates 
amongst  us,  by  their  ravages ;  has  enabled  us  to  distinguish 
our  friends  from  i»ur  enemies.  It  has  opened  the  eyes 
of  those  who  were  made  to  believe  that  abetting  our  per- 
secutors, would  exempt  them  from  the  common  calamity. 
But  as  the  rapacity  of  the  enemy  was  boundless,  their  ra- 
pine was  indiscriminate,  and  their  barbarity  unparalleled 
They  have  plundered  friends  and  foes.  Effects  capable  of 
division,  they  have  divided ;  such  as  were  not,  they  have 
destroyed.  They  have  warred  upon  decrepid  age  ;  and 
defenceless  youth. 

They  have  committed  hostilities  against  the  professors 
of  literature,  and  the  ministers  of  religion  ;  against  public 
records,  and  private  monuments  ;  against  books  of  im- 
provement, and  papers  of  curiosity  ;  and  against  the  arts 
and  sciences.  They  have  butchered  the  wounded,  asking 
for  quarters  ;  mangled  the  dying,  weltering  in  their  blood  ; 
refused  the  dead  the  rights  of  sepulture  :  suffered  prison- 
ers to  perish  for  want  of  sustenance  ;  violated  the  chasti- 
ty of  women  ;  disfigured  private  dwellings  of  taste  and  ele- 
gance ;  and,  in  the  rage  of  impiety  and  barbarism,  profan- 
ed edifices  dedicated  to  Almighty  God  ! 

Yet  there  are  some  among  us,  who,  deluded  by  insidious 
prop6sitions, — are  aiding  their  machinations,  to  deprive  us 
of  that  liberty,  without  which  man  is  a  beast,  and  govern- 
ment a  curse. 

Besides  the  baseness  of  wishing  to  rise  on  the  ruin  of 
our  country  ;  or  to  acquire  riches  at  the  expense  of  the  li- 
berties and  fortunes  of  our  fellow-citizens,  how  soon 
would  those  delusive  dreams,  upon  the  conquest  of  Ame- 
rica, be  turned  into  disappointment.  Instead  of  gratuities, 
these  unhappy  accomplices  in  tyranny,  would  meet  with 
cold  disdain  ;  and,  be  finally  told,  by  their  haughty  mas- 
ters, that  they  approved  of  the  treason,  but  despised  the 
traitor. 


SPEAKER.  2r3 

Even  the  author  of  this  horrid  war  is  incapable  of  con- 
cealing his  own  confusion  and  distress.  Too  great  to  be 
wholly  suppressed,  it  frequently  discovers  itself  in  his 
speeches,  breathing  threatenings,  and  betraying  terror  ;  a 
motley  mixture  of  magnanimity  and  consternation  ;  of 
grandeur  and  abasement :  with  troops  invincible,  he  dreads 
a  defeat,  and  wants  reinforcements  ;  victorious  in  Ameri- 
ca, and  triumphant  on  the  ocean,  he  is  an  humble  depen- 
dant on  a  petty  prince  ;  and  with  full  confidence  in  the 
friendship  and  alliance  of  France,  he  trembles  at  her  se- 
cret designs,  and  open  preparations. 

With  all  this  we  ought  to  contrast  the  numerous  and 
hardy  sons  of  America,  inured  to  toil ;  seasoned  alike  to 
heat  and  cold ;  hale,  robust,  patient  of  fatigue  ;  and  from 
an  ardent  love  of  liberty  ready  to  face  danger  and  death. 

Their  remarkable  unanimity  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
apostates  and  deserters  j  their  unshaken  resolution  to  main- 
tain their  freedom,  or  perish  in  the  attempt ;  the  fertility 
of  our  soil ;  our  inexhaustible  internal  resources  ;  our  eco- 
nomy in  public  expenses,  add  to  this,  that  in  a  cause  so  just 
we  have  the  highest  reason  to  expect  the  Wr- Qsing  of  Hea- 
ven upon  our  glorious  conflict. 

For  who  can  doubt  the  interposition  of  the  Supremely 
Just,  in  favour  of  a  people  forced  to  arms,  in  defence  of 
every  thing  dear,  against  a  nation  deaf  to  our  complaints, 
rejoicing  in  our  misery,  wantonly  aggravating  our  oppres- 
sions, determined  to  divide  our  substance,  and  by  fire  and 
sword  to  compel  us  into  submission. 

Let  us,  however,  not  presumptuously  rely  on  the  inter- 
position of  Providence,  without  those  efforts  which  it  is 
our  duty  to  exert. 

Let  us  remember  our  plighted  faith  and  honor  to  main- 
tain the  cause  with  our  lives  and  fortunes.  Let  those  in 
distinguished  stations  use  all  their  influence  to  rouse  the 
supine  ;  animate  the  irresolute  ;  confirm  the  wavering,  and 
draw  from  his  lurking  hole  the  skulking  neutral,  who,  leav- 
ing to  others  the  h'-rat  and  burthen  of  the  day,  means,  in 
the  final  result,  to  reap  the  fruits  of  that  victory,  for  which 
he  will  not  contend. 

Let  us  be  peculiarly  assiduous  in  bringing  to  condign 
punishment,  those  parricides  who  have  been  openly  active 
against  their  native  country ;  and  may  we,  in  all  proceed- 


274  AMERICAN 

ings,  be  directed  by  the  great  Arbiter  of  the  fate  of  ^na- 
tions, by  whom  empires  rise  and  fall,  and  who  will  in  due 
time  avenge  an  injured  peopk  on  their  unfeeling  oppres- 
sor and  his  bloody  instruments* 


Oration  of  Robert  Enunett  to  Lord  Norbury^  one  of  the 
Judges  before  whom  he  was  tried  for  Treason* 

My  Lords,— You  ask  me  what  I  have  to  say,  why  sen- 
tence of  death  should  not  be  proiiounced  on  me,  according 
to  law  ?  I  have  nothing  to  say  which  can  alter  your  pre- 
determinations, nor  that  it  will  become  me  to  say  with  any 
view  to  the  mitigation  of  that  sentence,  which  you  are 
here  to  pronounce,  and  I  must  abide  by.  But  I  have  that 
to  say,  which  interests  me  more  than  life,  and  which  you 
have  labored  (as  was  necessarily  your  office  in  the  present 
circumstances  of  this  oppressed  country)  to  destroy — I 
have  much  to  say  why  my  reputation  should  be  rescued 
from  the  load  of  false  accusations  and  calumny,  which 
have  been  heaped  upon  it.  I  do  not  imagine,  that  seated 
where  you  are,  your  minds  can  be  so  free  from  impurity, 
as  to  receive  the  least  impression  from  what  I  am  going  to 
utter  ;  I  have  no  hopes  that  I  can  anchor  my  character  in 
the  breast  of  a  court  constituted  and  trammelled  as  this  is  ; 
I  only  wish,  and  it  is  the  utmost  I  can  expect,  that  your 
lordships  may  suffer  it  to  float  down  your  memories  un- 
tainted by  the  foul  breath  of  prejudice,  until  it  finds  some 
more  hospitable  harbor  to  shelter  it  from  the  storm  by 
which  it  is  at  present  buffeted.  Was  I  only  to  suffer  death 
after  being  adjudged  guilty  by  yaur  tribunal,  I  should  bow 
in  silence,  and  meet  the  fate  that  awaits  me  without  a  mur- 
mur ;  but  the  sentence  of  the  law  which  delivers  my  body 
to  the  executioner,  will  through  the  ministry  of  that  law, 
labour  in  its  own  vindication,  to  consign  ray  character  to 
obloquy ;  for  there  must  be  guilt  somewhere  ;  whether  in 
the  sentence  of  the  court,  or  in  the  catastrophe,  posterity 
must  determine.  A  man  in  my  situation,  my  lords,  has 
not  only  to  encounter  the  difficulties  of  fortune,  and  the 
force  of  power  over  minds  which  it  has  corrupted  or  sub- 
jugated, by  the  difficulties  of  established  prejudice — the 
man  dies,  but  his  memory  lives  :  that  mine  may  not  per- 


SPEAKER.  273 

ish,  that  it  may  live  in  the  respect  of  my  countrymen,  I 
seize  upon  this  opportunity  to  vindicate  myself  from  some 
of  the  charges  alleged  against  me.  When  my  spirit  shall 
be  wafted  to  a  more  friendly  port;  when  my  shade  shall 
have  joined  the  bands  of  those  martyred  heroes,  who  have 
shed  their  blood  on  the  scaffold  and  in  the  field,  in  defence 
of  their  country  and  of  virtue,  this  is  my  hope,  I  wish 
that  my  memory  and  name  may  animate  those  who  sur- 
vive me,  while  I  look  down  with  complacency  on  the  des- 
truction of  that  perfidious  government,  which  upholds  its 
domination  by  blasphemy  of  the  Most  High;  which  dis- 
plays its  power  over  man,  as  over  the  beasts  of  the  forest ; 
which  sets  man  upon  his  brother,  and  lifts  his  hand  in  the 
name  of  God  against  the  throat  of  his  fellow,  who  believes 
or  doubts  a  litde  more,  or  a  little  less  than  the  government 
standard ;  a  government,  which  is  steeled  to  barbarity,  by 
the  cries  of  the  orphans  and  the  tears  of  the  widows  which 
it  has  made. 

(Lord  Norbury  here  interrupted  Mr.  Emmett,  sat/in^ 
that  the  mean  and -wicked  enthusiasts  who  felt  as  he  did^ 
xvere  not  equal  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  wild  designs,  J 

I  appeal  to  the  immaculate  God — 1  swear  by  the  throne 
of  Heaven,  before  which  I  must  shortly  appear ;  by  the 
blood  of  the  murdered  patriots  who  have  gone  before  me  ; 
tTiat  my  conduct  has  been,  through  all  this  peril,  and  through 
all  my  purposes,  governed  only  by  the  convictions  which 
1  have  uttered,  and  by  no  other  view  than  that  of  the  cure, 
and  the  emancipation  of  my  country  from  the  superinhu- 
man  oppression,  under  which  she  has  too  long  and  too  pa- 
tiently groaned  ;  and  that  I  confidently  and  assuredly  hope, 
that  wild  and  chimerical  as  it  may  appear,  there  is  still  u- 
nion  and  strength  in  Ireland  to  accomplish  this  noblest  en- 
terprise— Of  this  I  speak  with  the  confidence  of  intimate 
knowledge,  and  with  the  consolation  that  appertains  to 
that  confidence.  Think  not,  my  lords,  I  say  this  for  the 
petty  gratification  of  giving  you  a  transitory  uneasiness  ;  a 
man  who  never  yet  raised  his  voice  to  assert  a  lie,  will  not 
hazard  his  character  with  posterity,  by  asserting  a  false- 
hood on  a  subject  so  important  to  his  country,  and  on  an 
occasion  like  this. 

Yes,  my  lords,  a  man  who  does  not  wish  to  have  his  epi- 
taph written  until  his  country  is  liberated,  will  not  leave  a 


276  AMERICAN 

weapon  in  the  power  of  envy  to  impeach  the  probity 
which  he  means  to  preserve  even  in  the  grave  to  which 
tyranny  consigns  him.  (Here  he  was  again  interrupted 
by  the  court. J  Again  I  say,  that  what  I  have  spoken,  was 
not  intended  for  your  lordship,  whose  situation  I  commise- 
rate rather  than  envy — My  expressions  were  for  my  coun- 
trymen ;  if  there  is  a  true  Irishman  present,  let  my  last 
words  cheer  him  in  the  hour  of  his  affliction.  (Here  hh 
was  again  interrupted  ;  Lord  Norbury  said  he  did  not  sit 
there  to  hear  treason, J  I  have  always  understood  it  to  be 
the  duty  of  a  judge,  when  a  prisoner  has  been  convicted, 
to  pronounce  the  sentence  of  the  law  ;  I  have  also  under- 
stood that  judges  sometimes  think  it  their  duty  to  hear 
with  patience,  and  to  speak  with  hurtfanity  ;  to  exhort  the 
victim  of  the  laws,  and  to  offer  with  tender  benignity  his 
opinions  of  the  motives  by  which  he  was  actuated  in  the 
crime,  of  which  he  had  been  found  guilty  :  That  a  judge 
has  thought  it  his  duty  so  to  have  done,  I  have  no  doubt 
= — but  where  is  the  boasted  freedom  of  your  institutions, 
where  is  the  vaunted  impartiality,  clemency  and  mildness 
of  your  courts  of  justice  ;  if  an  unfortunate  prisoner,  whom 
your  policy,  and  not  justice  is  about  to  deliver  into  the 
hands  of  the  executioner,  is  not  suffered  to  explain  his  mo- 
tives sincerely  and  truly,  and  to  vindicate  the  principles 
by  which  he  was  actuated.  My  Lords,  it  may  be  a  part  of 
the  system  of  angry  justice,  to  bow  a  man's  mind  by  hu- 
miliation to  the  purposed  ignominy  of  the  scaffold  ;  but 
worse  to  me  than  the  purposed  shame  of  the  scaffold's  ter- 
rors would  be  the  tame  indurance  of  charges  and  ireiputa- 
tions  laid  against  me  in  this  court :  You,  my  lord,  are  a 
judge,  I  am  the  supposed  culprit ;  I  am  a  man,  you  are  a 
man  also  !  by  a  revolution  of  power,  we  might  change 
places ;  though  v/e  never  could  change  characters ;  if  I 
stand  at  the  bar  of  this  court  and  dare  not  vindicate  my 
character,  what  a  farce  is  your  justice  !  If  I  stand  at  this 
bar,  and  dare  not  vindicate  it,  how  dare  you  calumniate  it  ? 
Does  the  sentence  of  death,  which  your  policy  inflicts  on 
my  body,  also  condemn  my  tongue  to  silence,  and  my  re- 
putation to  reproach  ?  Your  executioner  may  abridge  the 
period  of  my  existence  ;  but  while  I  exist  I  shall  not  cease 
to  vindicate  my  character  and  motives  from  your  asper- 
sions J  and  as  a  man  to  whom  fame  is  dearer  than  life,  I 


SPEAKER.  277 

will  make  the  last  use  of  that  life  in  doing  justice  to  that 
reputation  which  is  to  live  after  me,  and  which  is  the  only 
legacy  I  can  leave  to  those  i  honor  and  love,  and  for  whom 
I  am  proud  to  perish. 

As  men,  my  lord,  we  must  appear  on  the  great  day,  at 
one  common  tribunal,  and  it  will  then  remain  for  the 
searcher  of  all  hearts  to  shew  a  collective  universe,  who 
was  engaged  in  the  most  virtuous  actions,  or  attached  by 
the  purest  motives.  (Here  he  was  interrupted  and  told  to 
listen  to  the  sentence  of  the  law,  J 

My  lord,  will  a  dying  man  be  denied  the  legal  privilege 
of  exculpating  himself,  in  the  eyes  of  the  community,  of 
an  undeserved  reproach  thrown  upon  him  daring  his  trial, 
by  charging  him  with  ambition,  and  attempting  to  cast 
away,  for  a  paltry  consideration,  the  liberties  of  his  coun- 
try ?  Why  did  your  lordship  insult  me  I  Or  rather,  why 
insult  justice,  in  demanding  of  me,  why  sentence  of  death 
should  not  be  pronounced  ?  I  know,  my  lord,  that  form 
prescribes  that  you  should  ask  the  question,  the  form  also 
presumes  a  right  of  answering.  This,  no  doubt,  may  be 
dispensed  with,  and  so  rwight  the  whole  ceremony  of  the 
trial,  since  sentence  was  already  pronounced  at  the  Castle 
before  your  jury  was  impannelled  ;  your  lordships  are  but 
the  priests  of  the  oracle,  and  I  submit ;  but  I  insist  on  the 
whole  of  the  forms.  I  am  charged  with  being  an  emissa- 
ry to  France  !  An  emissary  of  France  !  And  for  what  end? 
It  is  alleged  that  I  wished  fo  sell  the  independence  of  my 
country !  And  for  what  end  ?  Was  this  the  object  of  my 
ambition  ?  And  is  this  the  mode  by  which  a  tribunal  of 
justice  reconciles  contradictions?  No,  I  am  no  emissary; 
and  my  ambition  was  to  hold,  a  place  among  the  deliver- 
ers of  my  country,  not  in  power,  nor  in  profit,  but  in  the 
glory  of  the  achievement !  Sell  my  country's  independence 
to  France  !  And  for  what  ?  Was  it  for  a  change  of  mas- 
ters ?  No  !  but  for  ambition  !  O,  my  country,  was  it  per- 
sonal ambition  that  could  influence  me,  had  it  been  the  soul 
of  my  actions,  could  I  not  by  my  education  and  fortune, 
by  the  rank  and  consideration  of  my  family,  have  placed 
myself  among  the  proudest  of  my  oppressors  ?  My  coun- 
try was  my  idol ;  to  it  I  sacrifice  every  selfish,  every  en- 
dearing sentiment ;  and  for  it,  I  now  offer  up  my  life O, 

God  !  No,  my  lord,  I  acted  as  an  Irishman,  determined 

B    B 


^rs  AMERICAN 

on  delivering  my  country  from  the  yoke  of  a  foreign  and 
unrelenting  tyrant,  from  a  crimson  and  bloody  tyranny, 
and  from  the  more  galling  yoke  of  a  domestic  faction, 
which  is  joint  partner  and  perpetrator  in  the  patricide  for 
the  ignominy  of  existing  with  an  exterior  of  splendor,  and 
a  conscious  depravity.  It  was  the  wish  of  my  heart  to 
extricate  my  country  from  this  doubly  rivetted  despotism. 
— I  wished  to  place  her  independence  beyond  the  reach  of 
any  power  on  earth  ;  I  wished  to  exalt  her  to  that  proud 
station  in  the  world. — Connexion  with  France  was  indeed 
intended  ;  but  only  as  far  as  our  mutual  interest  would 
sanction  and  require  ;  were  they  to  assume  any  authority 
inconsistent  with  the  purest  independence,  it  would  be  the 
signal  for  their  destruction  ;  we  sought  aid,  and  we  sought 
it  as  we  had  assurances  we  should  obtain  it ;  as  auxiliaries 
in  war  and  allies  in  peace.  Were  the  French  to  come  as  in- 
vaders or  enemies;  uninvited  by  the  wishes  of  the  people; 
I  should  oppose  them  to  the  utmost  of  my  strength.  Yes, 
my  countrymen,  I  should  advise  you  to  meet  them  upon 
the  beach,  with  a  sword  in  one  hand,  and  a  torch  in  the 
other ;  I  would  meet  them  with  all  the  destructive  fury  of 
war ;  and  I  would  animate  my  countrymen  to  immolate 
them  in  their  boats,  before  they  had  contaminated  the  soil 
of  my  country.  If  they  succeeded  in  landing,  and  if  forc- 
ed to  retire  before  superior  discipline,  I  would  dispute  ev- 
ery inch  of  ground,  burn  every  blade  of  grass,  and  the  last 
intrenchment  of  libery  should  be  my  grave.  What  I  could 
not  do  myself,  if  I  should  fall,  I  should  leave  as  a  last 
charge  to  my  countrymen  to  accomplish,  because  I  should 
feel  conscious,  that  life,  any  more  than  death,  is  un- 
profitable, when  a  foreign  nation  holds  my  country  in 
subjection.  But  it  was  not  as  an  enemy,  that  the  suc- 
cors of  France  were  lo  land  ;  I  looked,  indeed,  for  the 
assistance  of  France,  but  I  wished  to  prove  to  France  and 
to  the  world,  that  Irishmen  deserved  to  be  assisted  ;  that 
they  were  indignant  at  slavery,  and  ready  to  assert  the  in- 
dependence and  liberty  of  their  country.  I  wished  to  pro- 
cure for  my  country  the  guarantee  which  Washington  pro- 
cured for  America.  To  procure  an  aid,  which  by  its  ex- 
ample, would  be  as  important  as  its  valor,  disciplined,  and 
gallant,  pregnant  with  science  and  with  experience;  who 
would  perceive  the  good,  and  polish  the  rough  points  of 


SPEAKER.  279 

our  character ;  they  would  come  to  us  as  strangers,  and 
leave  us  as  friends,  after  sharing  our  perils  and  alleviating 
our  burdens — These  were  my  objects,  not  to  receive  new 
task-masters,  but  to  expel  old  tyrants;  these  were  my 
views  ;  and  these  only  became  Irishmen.  I  know  your 
most  implacable  enemies  are  in  the  bosom  of  your  coun- 
try. I  have  been  charged  with  that  importance  in  the  ef- 
forts to  emancipate  my  country,  as  to  be  ^considered  the 
kev-stone  of  the  combination  of  Irishmen,  or  as  your 
lordship  expresses  it,  "  the  life  and  blood  of  the  conspi- 
racy." You  do  me  honor  over  much,  you  have  given  to 
the  subaltern,  all  the  credit  of  a  superior  ;  there  are  men 
engaged  in  this  conspiracy,  who  are  not  only  superior  to 
me,  but  even  to  your  own  conceptions  of  yourself,  my 
lord  ;  men,  before  the  splendor  of  whose  virtues  and  ge- 
nius, I  should  bow  with  respectful  deference,  and  who 
would  think  themselves  dishonored  to  be  called  your  friend; 
who  would  not  disgrace  themselves  by  shaking  your  blood  j 
stained  hand. 


Speech  delivered  by  Jacob  Henry ^  in  the  Legislature  of 
North-Carolina^  on  a  motion  to  vacate  his  seaty  he  being 
a  Jew* 

Mr.  Speaker — Though  I  will  not  conceal  the  surprie 
I  felt  that  the  gentleman  should  have  thought  proper  yes- 
terday to  have  moved  my  expulsion  from  this  house,  on 
the  alleged  grounds  that  I  '*  disbelieve  in  the  divine  au- 
thority of  the  New-Testament"  without  considering  him- 
self bound  by  those  rules  of  politeness,  which,  according 
to  my  sense  of  propriety,  should  have  led  him  to  give  me 
some  previous  intimation  of  his  design  ;  yet  since  I  am 
brought  to  the  discussion,  I  feel  prepared  to  meet  the  ob- 
ject of  his  resolution. 

I  certainly,  IVIr.  Speaker,  know  not  the  design  of  the 
declaration  of  Rights  made  by  the  people  of  this  state  in 
the  year  '76,  if  it  was  not  to  consecrate  certain  great  and 
fundanental  Rights  and  Principles,  which  even  tl'-e  Con- 
stitution cannot  impair  :  For  the  41th  section  of  the  latter 
instruuieat  declares  that  the  declaration  of  riohts  ought 
never  to  be  violated  on  any  pretence  whatever — If  there 


280  AIMEQtAN 

is  any  apparent  differenfieir  merits  ?  The  religion  I  pro- 
they  ought  if  possible^uty  ^hich  man  owes  to  his  fellow 
final  repugnance  h^\  its  votaries  the  practice  of  every  vir- 
mustbe  conside^tatjon  of  every  vice;  it  teaches  thenn  to 
the  Const] tuti^vour  of  Heaven  exactly  in  proportion  as 
trouls  and  r/e  directed  by  just,  honorable  and  beneficent 
a  belief  LXhis  then  gentlemen  is  my  creed  ;  it  was  im- 
stitutif  upon  my  infant  mind,  it  has  been  the  director  of 
suc^outh,  the  monitor  of  my  manhood,  and  will  I  trust 
?  the  consolation  of  my  old  age.  At  any  rate  Mr.  Speak- 
er, I  am  sure  that  you  cannot  see  any  thing  in  this  reli- 
gion, to  deprive  me  of  my  seat  in  this  House.     So  far  as 
relates  to  my  life  and  conduct,  the  examination  of  these  I 
submit  with  cheerfulness  to  your  candid  and  liberal  con- 
struction.    What  may  be  the  religion  of  him  who  made 
this  objection  against  me,  or  whether  he  has  any  religion 
cr  not   I    am    unable   to   say.       I  have  never  consider- 
ed it  my  duty  to  pry  into  the  belief  of  other  members  of 
this  house,  if  their  actions  are  upright  and  their  conduct 
just,  the  rest  is  for  thtir  own  consideration  not  for  mine> 
1  do  not  seek  to  make  convtrts  to  my  faith,  whatever  it 
may  be  esteemed  in  the  eyes  of  my  officious  friend,   nor 
do  I  exclude  any  man  from  my  esteem  or  friendship,  be- 
cause he  and  I  differ  in  that  respect — The  same   charity 
therefore  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  expect  will  be  extend- 
ed to  myself,  because  in  all  things  that  relate  to  the  State 
and  to  the  duties  of  civil  life,  I  am  bou:id  by  the  same 
obligations  with   my  fellow  citizens  ;  nor  does  any  man 
subscribe    more    sincerely    than    myself    to  the    maxim, 
"  whatever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye 
so  even  unto  them,  for  such  is  the  Law  and  the  Prophets." 


Speech  of  General  Washington  to  Congress  on  accenting  his 
Commission^  June  ISth^  1774U. 

Mr.  President — Though  I  am  truly  sensible  of  the  high 
honor  done  me,  in  this  appointment,  yet  I  feel  great  dis- 
tress, from  a  consciousness  that  my  abihties  and  military 
experience  may  not  be  equal  to  the  extensive  and  import- 
ant trust :  However,  as  the  Congress  desire  it,  I  will  enter 
upon  the  momentous  duty  and  exert  every  power  I  pos- 


SPEAKER.  28.3 

sess  in  their  service,  and  for  support  of  the  glorious  cause. 
I  beg  they  will  accept  my  most  cordial  thanks  for  this 
distinguished  testimony  of  their  approbation. 

"  But,  lest  some  unlucky  event  should  happen,  unfavor- 
able to  my  reputation,  I  beg  it  may  be  remembered,  by 
every  gentleman  in  the  room,  that  I,  this  day,  declare  with 
the  utmost  sincerity,  I  do  not  think  myself  equal  to  the 
command  I  am  hoaored  with. 

"  As  to  pay,  sir^  I  beg  leave  to  assure  the  Congress,  that 
as  no  pecuniary  consideration  could  have  tempted  me  to 
accept  this  arduous  employment,  at  the  expense  of  my  do- 
mestic ease  and  happiness,  1  do  not  wish  to  make  any  pro- 
fit from  it.  I  will  keep  an  exact  account  of  my  expen- 
ses. Those,  I  doubt  not,  they  will  discharge,  and  that  is 
all  I  desire." 


Gaural  IVashlng'ton  to  the  Troops  previous  to  the  Battle  of 
Long'  Island — 1776. 

*'  The  time  is  now  near  at  hand,  which  must  probably 
determine  whether  Americans  are  to  be  freemen  or  slaves; 
whether  they  are  to  have  any  property  they  can  call  their 
own  ;  whether  their  houses  and  firms  are  to  be  pillaged 
and  destroyed,  and  themselves  consigned  to  a  state  of 
wretchedness,  from  which  no  human  efforts  will  deliver 
them.  The  fate  of  unborn  millions  will  now  depend,  un- 
der God,  on  the  courage  and  conduct  of  this  army.  Our 
crtiel  and  unrelenting  enemy,  leaves  us  only  the  choice  of 
a  brave  resistance,  or  the  most  abject  submission.  We 
have  therefore  to  resolve  to  conqueror  to  die.  Our  own, 
our  country's  honor,  calls  upon  us  for  a  vigorous  and 
manly  exertion  ;  and  if  we  now  shamefully  fail,  we  shall 
become  infamous  to  the  whole  world.  Let  us  then  rely 
on  the  goodness  of  our  cause,  and  the  aid  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  in  whose  hands  victory  is,  to  animate  and  encou- 
rage us  to  great  and  noble  actions.  The  eyes  of  all  our 
countrymen  are  now  upon  us,  and  we  shall  have  their  bles- 
sings and  praises,  if  happily  we  are  the  instrumer.ts  of 
saving  them  from  the  tyranny  meditated  against  them. 
Let  us  therefore  animate  and  encourage  each  other,  and 
show  the  whole  world  that  a  freeman  contending  for  liber- 


284  AMERICAN 

ty  on  his  own  ground,  is  superior  to  any  slavish  mercenary 
on  earth. 

*'  Liberty,  property,  life,  and  honor  are  all  at  stake ; 
upon  your  courage  and  conduct,  rests  the  hopes  of  our 
bleeding  and  insulted  country;  our  wives,  children,  and 
parents,  expect  safety  from  us  only  ;  and  they  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  Heaven  will  crown  with  success  so 
just  a  cause. 

"  The  enemy  will  endeavour  to  intimidate  by  show  and 
appearance,  but  remember  they  have  been  repulsed  on  va- 
rious occasions  by  a  few  brave  Americans.  Their  cause 
is  bad — their  men  are  conscious  of  it,  and  if  opposed  with 
firmness  and  coolness  on  their  first  onset,  with  our  advan- 
tage of  works,  and  knowledge  of  the  ground,  the  victory 
IS  most  assuredly  ours.  Every  good  soldier  will  be  silent 
and  attentive — wait  for  orders- — and  reserve  his  fire  until 
he  is  sure  of  doing  execution :  of  this  the  officers  are  to 
be  particularly  careful." 

Speech  of  General  Washington  to  his  troops  before  attacking^ 
the  Hessians  at  Trenton^  December ^  1776. 

My  friends,  it  is  not  only  the  liberty  of  America  that 
depends  on  your  valour  and  firmness  but  what  ought  to  be 
much  more  dear  to  you  than  your  lives,  your  honor!  Think 
of  the  infamy  which  will  attend  you  through  life,  not  only 
here,  but  through  the  whole  world,  if  the  campaign  closes 
without  some  instance  that  the  courage  with  which  you 
stand  to  your  arms,  is  equal  to  the  justice  of  the  cause 
which  ought  to  animate  your  bosoms.  For  my  own  part, 
I  will  not  survive  a  defeat,  if  that  defeat  arises  from  any 
inattention  to  your  safety.  Wipe  out  the  stains  which  have 
been  thrown  upon  your  reputations,  by  seeking  an  honor- 
able death  ;  and  give  credit  to  me,  that  it  will  be  the  only 
means  of  meeting  victory,  life  and  honor. 


SPEAKER.  281^ 

General  Orders  Issued  by  General  Washington^  to  the  Armi/, 
Head  garters yApril  18?/*,  1783.  {^fttfyJim 

The  commander  in  chief  orders  the  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties between  the  United  States  of  America  and  the  king 
of  Great  Britain,  to  be  publicly  proclaimed  to-morrow  at 
twelve  o'clock,  at  the  new  building  :  and  that  the  procla- 
mation which  will  be  communicated  herewith  be  read  to- 
morrow evening  at  the  head  of  every  regiment  and  corps 
of  the  army ;  after  which  the  chaplanis,  with  the  several 
brigades  will  render  thanks  to  the  Almighty  God  for  all 
his  mercies,  particularly  for  his  over-ruling  the  wrath  of 
man  to  his  own  glory,  and  causing  the  rage  of  w*ar  to  cease 
among  the  nations. 

Although  the  proclamation  before  alluded  to,  extends 
only  to  the  prohibition  of  hostilities,  and  not  to  the  annun- 
ciation of  a  general  peace,  yet  it  must  afford  the  most  ra- 
tional and  sincere  satisfaction  to  every  benevolent  mind, 
as  it  puts  a  period  to  a  long  and  doubtful  contest,  stops 
the  effusion  of  human  blood,  opens  the  prospect  to  a  more 
splendid  scene,  and,  like  another  morning  star,  promises 
the  approach  of  brighter  day  than  hath  hitherto  illuminat- 
ed the  western  hemisphere.  On  such  a  happy  day,  which 
is  the  harbinger  of  peace,  a  day  which  completes  the  eighth 
year  of  the  war,  it  would  be  ingratitude  not  to  rejoice  ;  it 
would  be  inseosibility  not  to  participate  in  the  general 
felicity. 

The  commander  in  chief,  far  from  endeavouring  to  sti- 
fle the  feelings  of  joy  in  his  own  bosom,  offers  his  most 
cordial  congratulations  on  the  occasion  to  all  the  officers 
of  every  denomination  ;  to  all  the  troops  of  the  United 
States  in  general  ;  and  in  particular  to  those  gallant  and 
persevering  men  who  had  resolved  to  defend  the  rights  of 
their  invaded  country,  so  long  as  the  war  should  continue. 
For  these  are  the  men  who  ought  to  be  considered  as  the 
pride  and  boast  of  the  American  armv  ;  and  who  crowned 
with  well  earned  laurels,  may  soon  withdraw  from  the  field 
of  glory  to  the  more  tranquil  walks  of  civil  life.  While 
the  commander  in  chief  recollects  the  al  r.ost  infinite  va- 
riety of  scenes  through  which  we  have  past,  with  a  mix- 
ture of  pleasure,  astonishment,  and  gratitude  ;  while  he 


286  AMERICAN 

contemplates  the  prospects  before  us  with  rapture,  he  can- 
not help  wishing  that  all  the  brave  men,  of  whatever  con- 
didoprth^v  may  be,  who  have  shared  the  toils  and  dangers 
\"''^^¥ffectmg  this  glorious  revolution  ;  of  rescuing  millions 
from  the  hand  of  oppression,  and  of  laying  the  foundation 
of  a  great  empire,  might  be  impressed  with  a  proper  idea 
of  the  dignified  part  they  have  been  called  to  act,  under 
the  smiles  of  Providence,  on  the  stage  of  human  affairs  ; 
for  happy,  thrice  happy  !  shall  they  be  pronounced  hereaf- 
ter, who  have  contributed  any  thing,  who  have  performed 
the  meanest  office  in  erecting  this  stupendous  fabric  of 
freedom  and  empire  on  the  broad  basis  of  independency ; 
who  have  assisted  in  protecting  the  rights  of  human  na- 
ture, and  established  an  asylum  for  the  poor  and  oppress- 
ed of  all  nations  and  religions. — The  glorious  task  for 
which  we  first  flew  to  arms  being  accomplished — The  li- 
berties of  our  country  being  fully  acknoivledged  and  firm- 
ly secured  by  the  smiles  of  heaven  on  the  purity  of  our 
cause,  and  the  honest  exertions  of  a  feeble  people,  deter- 
mined to  be  free,  against  a  powerful  nation  disposed  to 
oppress  them  ;  and  the  character  of  those  who  have  per- 
severed through  every  extremity  of  hardship,  suffering,  and 
danger,  being  immortahzed  by  the  illustrious  appellation 
of  the  patriot  army  i  nothing  now  remains  but  for  the  act- 
ors of  this  mighty  scene  to  preserve  a  perfect  unvarying 
consistency  of  character  through  the  very  last  act,  to  close 
the  drama  with  applause  ;  and  to  retire  from  the  military 
theatre  with  the  same  approbation  of  angels  and  men  which 
have  crowned  all  their  former  virtuous  actions.  For  this 
purpose  no  disorder  or  licentiousness  must  be  tolerated. — 
Every  considerate  and  well  disposed  soldier  must  remem- 
ber it  will  be  absolutely  necessary  to  wait  with  patience 
until  peace  shall  be  declared,  or  Congress  shall  be  enabled 
to  take  proper  measures  for  the  security  of  the  public 
stores,  &c.  As  soon  as  these  arrangements  shall  be  made, 
the  general  is  confident,  there  will  be  no  delay  in  discharg- 
ing, with  every  mark  of  distinction  and  honor,  all  the  men 
inlisted  for  the  war,  who  will  then  have  faithfully  perform- 
ed their  engagements  with  the  public.  The  general  has  al- 
ready interested  himself  in  their  behalf,  and  he  thinks  he 
need  not  repeat  the  assurance  of  his  disposition  to  be  use- 
ful to  them  on  the  present,  and  every  other  proper  occa- 


SPEAKER.  287 

sion.  In  the  mean  time,  he  is  determined  that  no  military 
neglects  or  excesses  shall  go  unpunished,  while  he  retains 
the  command  of  the  army. 

The  adjutant-general  will  have  such  working  parties 
detached,  to  assist  in  making  the  preparations  for  a  gen- 
eral rejoicing,  as  the  chief  engineer  of  the  army  shall  call 
for ;  and  the  quarter-master-general  will,  without  delay, 
procure  such  a  number  of  discharges  to  be  printed  as  will 
be  sufficient  for  all  the  men  inlisted  for  the  war — he  will 
please  to  apply  to  head  quarters  for  the  form.  An  extra 
ration  of  liquor  to  be  issued  to  every  man  to-morrow  to 
drink, "  Perpetual  peace  and  happiness  to  the  United  States 
of  America." 


General  Wasklngton's  Circular  Letter  to  the  Governor  of 
each  of  the  States^  dated  Head- ^carter s^  Newburghy 
June  18,  1783. 

"  Sir — The  object  for  which  I  had  the  honor  to  hold 
an  appointment  in  the  service  of  my  country,  being  accom- 
plished, I  am  now  preparing  to  resign  it  into  the  hands  of 
Congress,  and  return  to  that  domestic  retirement,  which, 
it  is  well  known,  I  left  with  the  greatest  reluctance  ;  a  re- 
tirement for  which  I  have  never  ceased  to  sigh  through  a 
long  and  painful  absence,  in  which,  (remote  from  the  noise 
and  trouble  of  the  world,)  I  meditate  to  pass  the  remain- 
der of  lifo,  in  a  state  of  undisturbed  repose  ;  but,  before 
I  carry  this  resolution  into  effect,  I  think  it  a  duty  incum- 
bent on  me  to  make  this  my  last  official  communication,  to 
congratulate  you  on  the  glorious  events  which  heaven  has 
been  pleased  to  produce  in  our  favour ;  to  offer  my  senti- 
ments respecting  some  important  subjects,  which  appear  to 
me  to  be  intimately  connected  with  the  tranquillity  of  the 
United  States  j  to  take  my  leave  of  your  excellency  as  a 
public  character;  and  to  give  my  final  blessing  to  that 
country,  in  whose  service  I  have  spent  the  prime  of  my 
life  ;  for  whose  sake  I  have  consumed  so  many  anxious 
days  and  watchful  nights,  and  whose  happiness,  being  ex- 
tremely dear  to  me,  will  always  constitute  no  inconsidera- 
part  of  my  ownr 


288  AMERICAN 

"  Impressed  with  the  liveliest  sensibility  on  this  pleas- 
ing occasion,  I  will  claim  the  indulgence  of  dilating  the 
more  copiously  on  the  subject  of  our  mutual  felicitation. 
When  we  consider  the  magnitude  of  the  prize  we  contend- 
ed for,  the  doubtful  nature  of  the  contest,  and  the  favour- 
able manner  in  which  it  has  terminated  ;  we  shall  find  the 
greatest  possible  reason  for  gratitude  and  rejoicing.  This 
is  a  theme  that  will  afford  infinite  delight  to  every  bene- 
volent and  liberal  mind,  whether  the  event  in  contempla- 
tion be  considered  as  a  source  of  present  enjoyment,  or  the 
parent  of  future  happiness  ;  and  we  shall  have  equal  occa- 
sion to  felicitate  ourselves  on  the  lot  which  Providence  has 
assigned  us,  whether  we  view  it  in  a  natural,  a  political,  or 
moral  point  of  light. 

'*  The  citizens  of  America,  placed  in  the  most  enviable 
condition,  as  the  sole  lords  and  proprietors  of  a  vast  tract 
of  continent,  comprehending  all  the  various  soils  and  cli- 
mates of  the  world,  and  abounding  with  all  the  necessaries 
and  conveniences  of  life,  are  now,  by  the  late  satisfactory 
pacification,  acknowledged  to  be  possessed  of  absolute  free- 
dom and  independency  :  they  are  from  this  period  to  be 
considered  as  the  actors  on  a  most  conspicuous  theatre, 
which  seems  to  be  peculiarly  designed  by  Providence  for 
the  display  of  human  greatness  and  felicity.  Here  they 
are  net  only  surrounded  with  every  thing  that  can  contri- 
bute to  the  completion  of  private  and  domestic  enjoyment; 
but  heaven  has  crowned  all  its  other  blessings,  by  giving  a 
surer  opportunity  for  political  happiness,  than  any  other 
nation  has  ever  been  favoured  with.  Nothing  can  illus- 
trate these  observations  more  forcibly  than  a  recollection 
of  ihe  happv  conjuncture  of  times  and  circumstances,  un- 
cH^  which  our  republic  assumed  its  rank  among  the  na- 
tions.— The  foundation  of  our  empire  was  not  laid  in  a 
gloomy  age  of  ignorance  and  superstition,  but  at  an  epocha 
%vhen  the  rights  of  mankind  were  better  understood  and 
more  clearly  defined,  than  at  any  former  period.  Re- 
searches of  the  human  mind  after  social  happiness  have 
been  carried  to  a  great  extent ;  the  treasures  of  knowledge 
acquired  by  the  labours  (if  philosophers,  sages,  and  legis- 
lators, through  a  long  succession  of  years,  are  laid  open 
for  us,  and  their  collected  wisdom  may  be  happily  applied 


SPEAKER,  289 

in  the  establishment  of  our  forms  of  government.  The 
free  cultivation  of  letters,  the  unbounded  extension  of  com- 
merce, the  progressive  refinement  of  manners,  the  grow- 
ing liberality  of  sentiment ;  and,  above  all,  the  pure  and 
benign  light  of  revelation,  have  had  a  meliorating  influ- 
ence on  mankind,  and  increased  the  blessings  of  society. 
At  this  auspicious  period,  the  United  States  came  into  ex- 
istence as  a  nation ;  and  if  their  citizens  should  not  be  com- 
pletely free  and  happy,  the  fault  will  be  entirely  their  own. 

"  Such  is  our  situation,  and  such  are  our  prospects.  But 
notwithstanding  the  cup  of  blessing  is  thus  reached  out  to 
us ;  notwithstanding  happiness  is  ours,  if  we  have  a  dispo- 
sition to  seize  the  occasion,  and  make  it  our  own ;  yet  it 
appears  to  me  there  is  an  option  still  left  to  the  United 
States  of  America,  whether  they  will  be  respectable  and 
prosperous,  or  contemptible  and  miserable  as  a  nation. 
This  is  the  time  of  their  political  probation  :  this  is  the  mo- 
ment when  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world  are  turned  upon 
them  :  this  is  the  time  to  establish  or  ruin  their  national 
character  for  ever :  this  is  the  favourable  moment  to  give 
such  a  tone  to  the  federal  government,  as  will  enable  it  to 
answer  the  ends  of  its  institution  ;  or,  this  may  be  the  ill- 
fated  moment  for  relaxing  the  powers  of  the  union,  anni- 
hilating the  cement  of  the  confederation,  and  exposing  us  to 
become  the  sport  of  European  politics,  which  may  play  one 
state  against  another,  to  prevent  their  growing  importance, 
and  to  serve  their  own  interested  purposes.  For,  accord- 
ing to  the  system  of  policy  the  states  shall  adopt  at  this 
moment,  they  will  stand  or  fall ;  and,  by  their  confirma- 
tion or  lapse,  it  is  yet  to  be  decided,  whether  the  revolutiou 
must  ultimately  be  considered  as  a  blessing  or  a  curse,  not 
to  the  present  age  alone,  for  with  our  fate  will  the  destiny 
of  unborn  millions  be  involved. 

"  With  this  coDviction  of  the  importance  of  the  pre- 
sent crisis,  silence  in  me  would  be  a  crime  j  I  will  there- 
fore speak  to  your  excellency  the  language  of  freedom 
and  sincerity,  without  disguise.  I  am  aware,  however 
those  who  differ  from  me  in  political  sentiments  may,  per- 
haps, remark,  I  am  stepping  out  of  the  proper  line  of  my 
duty  ;  and  they  may  possibly  ascribe  to  arrogance  or  os- 
tCHtation,  what  I  know  is  alone  the  result  of  the  purest 
intention.    But  the  rectitude  of  my  own  heart,  which  dis- 

C  c 


290  AMERICAN 

dain  such  unworthy  motives  ;  the  part  I  have  hitherto  act 
ed  in  Hfe  ;  the  determination  I  have  formed  of  not  taking 
any  share  in  public  business  hereafter ;  the  ardent  desire 
1  leel,  and  shall  continue  to  manifest,  of  quietly  enjoying 
in  private  life,  after  all  the  toils  of  war,  the  benefits  of  a 
wise  and  liberal  government,  will,  I  flatter  myself,  sooner 
or  later,  convince  my  countrymen,  that  I  could  have  no  si- 
nister views  in  delivering  with  so  little  reserve  the  opinions 
contained  in  this  address. 

"  There  are  four  things  which  I  humbly  conceive,  are 
essential  to  the  well  being,  I  may  even  venture  to  say  to 
the  existence  of  the  United  States,  as  an  independent 
powder, 

"  1st.  An  indissoluble  union  of  the  States  under  one 
federal  head. 

"  2dly.  A  sacred  regard  to  public  justice. 

"  3dly.  The  adoption  of  a  proper  peace  establishment. 
And, 

"  4thly.  The  prevalence  of  that  pacific  and  friendly  dis- 
position among  the  people  of  the  United  States,  which 
will  induce  them  to  forget  their  local  prejudices  and  poli- 
cies ;  to  make  those  mutual  concessions  which  are  requi- 
site to  the  general  prosperity;  and,  in  some  instances,  to 
sacrifice  their  individual  advantages  to  the  interest  of  the 
community. 

"  These  are  the  pillars  on  which  the  glorious  fabric  of 
our  independency  and  national  character  must  be  support- 
ed. Liberty  is  the  basis — and  whoever  would  dare  to  sap 
the  foundation,  or  overturn  the  structure,  under  whatever 
specious  pretext  he  may  attem.pt  it,  will  merit  the  bitterest 
execration,  and  the  severest  punishment,  which  can  be  in- 
flicted by  his  injured  country. 

"  On  the  three  first  articles  I  will  make  a  few  observa- 
tions; leaving  the  last  to  the  good  sense  and  serious  consi- 
deration of  those  immediately  concerned. 

*'  Under  the  first  head,  although  it  may  not  be  necessa- 
ry or  proper  for  me  in  this  place  to  enter  into  a  particular 
disquisition  of  the  principles  of  the  union,  and  to  take  up 
the  great  question  which  has  been  frequently  agitated, 
whether  it  be  expedient  and  requisite  for  the  states  to  de-t 
legate  a  larger  proportion  of  power  to  Congress,  or  not ; 
yet  it  will  be  a  part  of  my  duty,  and  thert  of  every  true 


I 


SPEAKER.  29% 

patriot,  to  assert,  without  reserve,  and  to  insist  upon  the 
following  positions  :— That  unless  the  states  will  suffer 
Congress  to  exercise  those  prerogatives  they  are  undoubt- 
edly invested  with  by  the  constitution,  every  thing  must 
very  rapidly  tend  to  anarchy  and  confusion  :  That  it  is  in- 
dispensable to  the  happiness  of  the  individual  states,  that 
there  should  be  lodged,  somewhere,  a  supreme  power  to 
regulate  and  govern  the  general  concerns  of  the  confede- 
rated republic,  without  which  the  union  cannot  be  of  lon^ 
duration  :  That  there  must  be  a  faithful  and  pointed  com- 
pliance on  the  part  of  every  state  with  the  late  proposals 
and  demands  of  Congress,  or  the  most  fatal  consequences 
will  ensue  :  That  whatever  measures  have  a  tendency  to 
dissolve  the  union,  or  contribute  to  violate  or  lessen  the 
sovereign  authority,  ought  to  be  cortsidered  as  hostile  to 
the  liberty  and  independence  of  America,  and  the  authors 
of  them  treated  accordingly.  And,  lastly,  that  unless  w^; 
can  be  enabled  by  the  concurrence  of  the  states  to  partici- 
pate of  the  fruits  of  the  revolution,  and  enjoy  the  essen- 
tial benefits  of  civil  society,  under  a  form  of  governmer  t 
so  free  and  uncorrupted,  so  happily  guarded  against  Vm: 
danger  of  oppression,  as  has  been  devised  and  adopted  by 
the  articles  of  confederation,  it  will  be  a  subject  ot  regret, 
that  so  much  blood  and  treasure  have  been  lavished  for  no 
purpose  ;  that  so  many  sufferings  have  been  encountered 
without  a  compensation,  and  that  so  many  sacrifices  have 
been  made  in  vain.  Many  other  consideraiions  might  here 
be  adduced  to  prove,  that  without  an  entire  conformity  to 
the  spirit  of  the  union,  we  cannot  exist  as  an  independent 
power.  It  will  be  sufHcient  for  my  purpose  to  mention 
lout  one  or  two,  which  seem  to  me  of  the  greatest  impor:- 
ance.  It  is  only  in  our  united  character  as  an  empire,  that 
our  independence  is  acknowledged,  that  our  power  can  be 
regarded,  or  our  credit  supported  among  foreign  nations. 
The  treaties  of  the  European  powers  with  the  United 
States  of  America,  will  have  no  validity  on  a  dissolution 
of  the  union.  We  shall  be  left  nearly  in  a  state  of  nature; 
or  we  may  find,  by  our  own  unhappy  experience,  that  there 
is  a  natural  and  necessary  progression  from  the  extreme 
of  anarchy  to  the  extreme  of  t)  ranny  ;  and  that  arbitrary 
power  is  most  easily  established  on  the  ruins  of  liberty  a- 
bused  to  licentiousness. 


292  AMERICAN 

"  As  to  the  second  article,  which  respects  the  perform- 
ance of  public  justice,  Congress  have,  in  their  late  address 
to  the  United  States,  almost  exhausted  the  subject ;  they 
have  explained  their  ideas  so  fully,  and  have  enforced  the 
obligations  the  states  are  under  to  render  complete  justice 
to  all  the  public  creditors,  with  so  much  dignity  and  ener- 
gy, that,  in  my  opinion,  no  real  friend  to  the'  honor  and 
independency  of  America  can  hesitate  a  single  moment 
respecting  the  propriety  of  complying  with  the  just  and 
honorable  measures  proposed.  If  their  argaments  do  not 
produce  conviction,  I  know  of  nothing  that  will  have 
greater  influence,  especially  when  we  reflect  that  the  sys- 
tem referred  to,  being  the  result  of  the  collected  wisdom 
of  the  continent,  must  be  esteemed,  if  not  perfect,  certain- 
ly the  least  objectionable,  of  any  that  could  be  devised  j 
and  that,  if  it  should  not  be  carried  into  immediate  exe- 
cution, a  national  bankruptcy,  with  all  its  deplorable  con- 
sequences, will  take  place  before  any  different  plan  can 
possibly  be  proposed  or  adopted  ;  so  pressing  are  the  pre- 
sent circumstances,  and  such  is  the  alternative  now  offer- 
ed to  the  states. 

"  The  ability  of  the  country  to  discharge  the  debts 
which  have  been  incurred  in  its  defence,  is  not  to  be  doubt- 
ed ;  and  inclination,  I  flatter  myself,  will  not  be  wanting. 
The  path  of  our  duty  is  plain  before  us  ;  honesty  will  be 
found,  on  every  experiment,  to  be  the  best  and  only  true 
policy.  Let  us  then,  as  a  nation  be  just ;  let  us  fulfil  the 
public  contracts  which  Congress  had  undoubtedly  a  right 
to  make  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  war,  with  the 
same  good  faith  we  suppose  ourselves  bound  to  perform 
our  private  engagements.  In  the  mean  time,  let  an  atten- 
tion to  the  cheerful  performance  of  their  proper  business, 
as  individuals,  and  as  members  of  society,  be  earnestly  in- 
culcated on  the  citizens  of  America;  then  will  they  strength- 
en the  bands  of  government,  and  be  happy  under  its  pro- 
tection. Every  one  will  reap  the  fruit  of  his  labours: 
every  one  will  enjoy  his  own  acquisitions,  without  moles- 
tation and  without  danger. 

«'  In  this  state  of  absolute  freedom  and  perfect  security, 
W'ho  will  grudge  to  yield  a  very  little  of  his  property  to 
support  the  common  interests  of  society,  aod  ensure  the 


SPEAKER.  293 

protection  of  government  ?  Who  does  not  remember  the 
frequent  declarations  at  the  commencement  of  the  war. 
That  we  should  be  completely  satisfied,  if,  at  the  expense 
of  one  half,  we  could  defend  the  remainder  of  our  pos- 
sessions ?  Where  is  the  man  to  be  found,  who  wishes  to 
remain  in  debt,  for  the  defence  of  his  own  person  and  pro- 
perty, to  the  exertions,  the  bravery,  and  the  blood  of  o- 
tliers,  without  making  one  generous  effort  to  pay  the  debt 
of  honor  aiid  of  gratitude?  In  what  part  of  the  continent 
shall  we  find  any  man,  or  body  of  men,  who  would  not 
blush  to  stand  up  and  propose  measures  purposely  calcu- 
lated to  rob  the  soldier  of  his  stipend,  and  the  public  cre- 
ditor of  his  due  ?  And  were  it  possible  that  such  a  flagrant 
instance  of  injustice  could  ever  happen,  would  it  not  ex- 
cite the  general  indignation,  and  tend  to  bring  down  upon 
the  authors  of  such  measures  the  aggravated  vengeance 
of  heaven  ?  If,  after  all,  a  spirit  of  disunion,  or  a  temper 
of  obstinacy  and  perverseness  should  manifest  itself  in  any 
of  the  states  ;  if  such  an  ungracious  disposition  should  at- 
tempt to  frustrate  all  the  happy  effects  that  might  be  ex- 
pected to  flow  from  the  union  ;  if  there  should  be  a  refu- 
sal to  comply  with  requisitions  for  funds  to  discharge  the 
annual  interest  of  the  public  debts  ;  and  if  that  refusal 
should  revive  all  those  jealousies,  and  produce  all  those  e- 
vils,  which  are  now  happily  removed,  Congress,  who  have 
in  all  their  transactions  .,hown  a  great  degree  of  magnani- 
mity and  justice,  will  stand  justified  in  the  sight  of  God 
r^nd  man !  and  that  state  alone,  which  puts  itself  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  aggregate  wisdom  of  the  continent,  and  fol- 
lows such  mistaken  and  pernicious  councils,  will  be  respon- 
sible for  all  the  consequences. 

"  For  my  own  part,  conscious  of  having  acted  while  a 
servant  of  the  public,  in  the  manner  I  conceived  best  suit- 
ed to  promote  the  real  interests  of  my  country  ;  having  in 
consequence  of  my  fixed  belief,  in  some  measure  pledged 
myself  to  the  army,  that  their  country  would  finally  do 
them  complete  and  ample  justice  ;  and  not  wishing  to  con- 
ceal any  instance  of  my  official  conduct  from  the  eyes  of 
the  world,  I  have  thought  proper  to  transmit  to  your  ex- 
cellency the  enclosed  collection  of  papers,  relative  to  the 
half  pay  and  commutation  granted  by  Congress,  to  the  of- 
ficers of  the  army.     From  these  communications  my  de- 

C  c  2 


294  AMERICAN 

cided  sentiment  will  be  clearly  comprehended,  together 
with  the  conclusive  reasons  which  induced  me,  at  an  ear- 
ly period  to  recommend  the  adoption  of  this  measure  in 
the  most  earnest  and  serious  manner.  As  the  proceedings 
of  Congress,  the  army,  and  myself,  are  open  to  all,  and 
contain,  in  my  opinion,  sufficient  information  to  remove 
the  prejudices  and  errors  which  may  have  been  entertain- 
ed by  any,  I  think  it  unnecessary  to  say  any  thing  more 
than  just  to  observe,  that  the  resolutions  of  Congress,  now 
alluded  to,  are  as  undoubtedly  and  absolutely  binding  up- 
on the  United  States,  as  the  most  solemn  acts  of  confede- 
ration or  legislation. 

"  As  to  the  idea  which,  I  am  informed,  has  in  some  in- 
stances prevailed,  that  the  half-pay  and  commutation  are 
to  be  regarded  merely  in  the  odious  light  of  a  pension,  it 
uught  to  be  exploded  for  ever ;  that  provision  should  be 
viewed,  as  it  really  was,  a  reasonable  compensation  offered 
by  Congress,  at  a  time  when  they  had  nothing  else  to  give 
to  officers  of  the  army,  for  services  then  to  be  performed. 
It  WHS  the  only  means  to  prevent  a  total  dereliction  of  the 
service.  It  was  a  part  of  their  hire  ;  I  may  be  allowed  to 
say,  it  was  the  price  of  their  blood,  and  of  your  indepen- 
dei.c.y.  It  is  therefore  more  than  a  common  debt;  it  is  a 
debi  of  honor  ;  it  can  never  be  considered  as  a  pension,  or 
gratuity,  nor  cancelled  until  it  is  fairly  discharged. 

"With  reg:»rd  to  the  distinc/.jn  between  officers  and 
soldiers,  it  is  sufficient  that  the  uniform  experience  of  ev- 
er)'  nation  of  the  world  combined  with  our  ov/n,  proves  the 
litility  'ind  propriety  of  the  discrimination.  Rewards  in 
proportion  to  the  aid  the  public  draws  from  them  are  un- 
question  ;bly  due  to  all  its  servants.  In  some  lines,  the 
solniers  have  perhiips,  generally,  had  as  ample  compensa- 
tion for  their  services,  by  the  large  bounties  which  have 
been  paid  ihem,  as  their  officers  will  receive  in  the  pro- 
posed commutation  j  in  others,  if,  besides  the  donation  of 
land,  the  paj  inent  of  arrearages  of  clothing  and  wages, 
(in  which  articles  all  the  component  parts  of  the  army 
muGi  be  put  upon  the  same  footing,)  we  take  into  the  esti- 
mate the  bounties  m.any  of  the  soldiers  have  received,  and 
the  gratuity  of  one  year's  full  pay,  which  is  promised  to 
all,  possibly  their  situation,  (every  circumstance  being  duly 
ijonsidered,)  will  not  be  deemed  less  eligible  than  that  of 


SPEAKER.  295 

the  officers.  Should  a  farther  reward,  however,  be  judged 
equitable,  I  will  venture  to  assert,  no  mail  will  enjoy  great- 
er satisfaction  than  myself,  in  an  exemption  from  taxes  for 
a  limited  time,  (which  has  been  petitioned  for  in  some  in- 
stances,) or  any  other  adequate  immunity  or  compensation 
granted  to  the  brave  defenders  of  their  country's  cause. 
But  neither  the  adoption  or  rejection  of  this  proposition 
will,  in  any  manner,  affect,  much  less  militate  against,  the 
act  of  Congress,  by  which  they  have  offered  five  years  full 
pay,  in  lieu  of  the  half-pay  for  life,  which  had  been  before 
promised  to  the  officers  of  the  army. 

"  Before  I  conclude  the  subject  on  public  justice,  I  can- 
not omit  to  mention  the  obligations  tliis  country  is  under 
to  that  meritorious  class  of  veterans,  the  non-commission- 
ed officers  and  privates,  who  have  been  discharged  for  in- 
ability, in  consequence  of  the  resolution  of  Congress,  of 
the  23d  of  April,  1782,  on  an  annual  pension  for  life. 
Their  peculiar  sufferings,  their  singular  merits  and  claims 
to  that  provision,  need  only  to  be  known,  to  interest  the 
feelings  of  humanity  in  their  behalf.  Nothing  but  a  punc- 
tual payment  of  their  annual  allowance,  can  rescue  them 
from  the  most  complicated  misery  ;  and  nothing  could  be 
a  more  melancholy  and  distressing  sight,  than  to  behold 
those  who  have  shed  their  blood,  or  lost  their  limbs  in  the 
service  of  their  country,  without  a  shelter,  without  a  friend, 
and  without  the  means  of  obtaining  any  of  the  comforts  or 
necessaries  of  life,  compelled  to  beg  their  bread  daily  from 
door  to  door.  Suffer  me  to  recommend  those  of  this  des- 
cription, belonging  to  your  state,  to  the  warmest  patronage 
of  your  excellency  and  your  legislature. 

"  It  is  necessary  to  say  but  a  few  words  on  the  third 
topic  which  was  proposed,  and  which  regards  particularly 
the  defence  of  the  republic — as  there  can  be  little  doubt 
but  Congress  will  recommend  a  proper  peace  establishment 
for  the  United  States,  in  which  a  due  attention  will  be  paid 
to  the  importance  of  placing  the  militia  of  the  union  upon 
a  regular  and  respectable  footing.  If  this  should  be  the 
case,  I  should  beg  leave  to  urge  the  great  advantage  of  it 
in  the  strongest  terms. 

"  The  militia  of  this  country  must  be  considered  as  the 
p?.lladium  of  our  security,  and  the  first  effectual  resort  in 
case  of  hostility.     It  is  essential,  therefore,  that  the  same 


295  AMERICAN 

system  should  pervade  the  whole  ;  that  the  formation  and 
discipline  of  the  militia  of  the  continent  should  be  abso- 
lutely uniform  ;  and  that  the  same  species  of  arms,  accou- 
trements, and  military  apparatus,  should  be  introduced  in 
every  part  of  the  United  States.  No  one,  who  has  not 
*  learned  it  from  experience^  can  conceive  the  difficulty,  ex- 
pense, and  confusion,  which  result  from  n  contrary  system, 
or  the  vague  arrangements  which  have  hitherto  prevailed. 
"  If,  in  treating  of  political  points,  a  greater  latitude 
than  usual  has  been  taken  in  the  course  of  the  address  ; 
the  importance  of  the  crisis,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  ob- 
jects in  discussion,  must  be  my  apology.  It  is,  however, 
neither  my  wish  nor  expectation,  that  the  preceding  obser- 
vations should  claim  any  regard,  except  so  far  as  they  shall 
appear  to  be  dictated  by  a  good  intention,  consonant  to  the 
immutable  rules  of  justice  ;  calculated  to  produce  a  libe- 
ral system  of  policy,  and  founded  on  whatever  experience 
may  have  been  acquired,  by  a  long  and  close  attention  to 
public  business.  Here  I  might  speak  with  more  confi- 
dence, from  my  actual  observations ;  and  if  it  would  not 
swell  this  letter,  (already  too  prolix,)  beyond  the  bounds  I 
had  prescribed  myself,  I  could  demonstrate  to  every  mind 
open  to  conviction,  that  in  less  time,  and  with  much  less 
expense  than  has  been  incurred,  the  war  might  have  been 
brought  to  the  same  happy  conclusion,  if  the  resources  of 
the  continent  could  have  been  properly  called  forth ;  that 
the  distresses  and  disappointments  which  have  very  often 
occurred,  have,  in  too  many  instances,  resulted  more  from 
a  want  of  energy  in  the  continental  government,  than  a  de- 
ficiency of  means  in  the  particular  states ;  that  the  ineffica- 
cy  of  the  me-asures,  arising  from  the  want  of  an  adequate 
authority  in  the  supreme  power,  from  a  partial  compliance 
with  the  requisitions  of  Congress,  in  some  of  the  states, 
and  from  a  failure  of  punctuality  in  others,  while  they 
tended  to  damp  the  zeal  of  those  who  were  more  wiUing 
to  exert  themselves,  served  also  to  accumulate  the  expenses 
of  the  war,  and  to  frustrate  the  best  concerted  plans;  and 
that  the  discouragement  occasioned  by  the  complicated 
difficulties  and  embarrassments,  in  which  our  affairs  were 
by  this  means  involved,  would  have  long  ago  produced  the 
dissolution  of  any  army,  less  patient,  less  virtuous,  and 
less  persevering,  than  that  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to 


SPEAKER.  29r 

command.  But  while  I  mention  those  things  which  are  no- 
torious facts,  as  the  defects  of  our  federal  constitution,  par- 
ticularly in  the  prosecution  of  a  war,  I  beg  it  may  be  un- 
derstood, that  as  I  have  ever  taken  a  pleasure  in  gratefully 
acknowledging  the  assistance  and  support  I  have  derived 
from  every  class  of  citizens  ;  so  I  shall  always  be  happy  to 
do  justice  to  the  unparalleled  exertions  of  the  individual 
states,  on  many  interesting  occasions. 

"  I  have  thus  freely  disclosed  what  I  wished  to  make 
known,  before  I  surrendered  up  my  public  trust  to  those 
who  committed  it  to  me.  The  task  is  now  accomplished  ; 
I  now  bid  adieu  to  your  excellency,  as  the  chief  magistrate 
of  your  state  ;  at  the  same  time  I  bid  a  last  farewel  to  the 
cares  of  office,  and  all  the  employments  of  public  life. 

"  It  remains,  then,  to  be  my  final  and  only  request,  that 
your  excellenc}^  will  communicate  these  sentiments  to  your 
legislature,  at  their  next  meeting;  and  that  they  may  be 
considered  as  the  legacy  of  one  who  has  ardently  wished, 
on  all  occasions  to  be  useful  to  his  country,  and  who,  even 
in  the  shade  of  retirement,  will  not  fail  to  implore  the  di- 
vine benediction  upon  it. 

"  I  now  make  it  my  earnest  prayer,  that  God  would 
have  you,  and  the  state  over  which  you  preside,  in  his  holy 
protection  ;  that  he  would  incline  the  hearts  of  the  citi- 
zens to  cultivate  a  spirit  of  subordination  and  obedience  to 
government ;  to  entertain  a  brotherly  affection  and  love  for 
one  another  ;  for  their  fellow-citizens  of  the  United  States 
at  large,  and  particularly  for  their  brethren  who  have  serv- 
ed in  the  field  ;  and,  finally,  that  he  would  most  graciously 
be  pleased  to  dispose  us  all  to  do  justice,  to  love  mercy, 
and  to  demean  ourselves  with  that  charity,  humility,  and 
pacific  temper  of  the  mind,  which  were  the  characteristics 
of  the  divine  author  of  our  blessed  religion  ;  without  an 
humble  imitation  of  whose  example,  in  these  things  we 
can  never  hope  to  be  a  happy  nation, 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

"  with  much  esteem  and  repect, 
"  Sir, 
"  Your  excellency's  most  obedient, 
"  And  most  humble  servant, 

"  GEO:  WASHINGTON.'^ 


298  AMERICAN 


Speech  of  General  Washington  to  the  Anny^  on  the  15  th  of 
JIarch,  ir83,  in  consequence  of  an  ano72ymous  appeal  to 
the  Army, 

Gentlemen — By  an  anonymous  summons,  an  attempt  has 
been  made  to  convene  you  together.  How  inconsistent 
with  the  rules  of  propriety,  how  unmilitary  and  how  sub- 
versive of  all  order  and  discipline,  let  the  good  sense  of 
the  army  decide. 

In  the  moment  of  this  summons,  another  anonymous 
production  was  sent  into  circulation,  addressed  more  to  the 
feelings  and  passions  than  to  the  reason  and  judgment  of 
the  army.     The  author  of  the  piece  is  entitled  to  much 
credit  for  the  goodness  of  his  pen  ;  and  I  could  wish  he 
had  as  much  credit  for  the  rectitude  of  his  heart ;  for,  as 
men  see  through  different  optics,  and  are  induced  by  the 
reflecting  faculties  of  the  mind,  to  use  different  means  to 
attain  the  same  end,  the  author  of  the  address  should  have 
had  more  charity  than  to  mark  for  suspicion  the  man  who 
should  recommend  moderation  and  longer  forbearance,  or, 
in  other  words,  who  should  not  think  as  he  thinks,  and  act 
as  he  advises.  But  he  had  another  plan  in  view,  in  which 
candor  and  liberality  of  sentim.ent,  regard  to  justice  and 
love  of  country,  have  no  part:  and  he  was  right  to  insi- 
nuate the  darkest  suspicion  to  effect  the  blackest  designs. 
That  the  address  is  drawn  with  great  art,  and  is  designed 
to  ansv/er  the  most  insidious  purposes ;  that  it  is  calculat- 
ed to  impress  the  mind  with  an  idea  of  premeditated  in- 
justice in  the  sovereign  power  of  the  United  States,  and 
rouse  all  those  resentments  which  must  unavoidably  flow 
from  such  a  belief;  that  the  secret  mover  of  this  scheme, 
whoever  he  may  be,  intended  to  take  advantage  of  the  pas- 
sions, while  they  were  warmed  by  the  recollection  of  past 
distresses,  without  giving  time  for  cool,  deliberative  think- 
ing ;  and  that  composure  of  mind  which  is  so  necessary  to 
give  dignity  and  stability  to  measures,  is  rendered  too  ob- 
vious, by  the  mode  of  conducting  the  business,  to  need  o- 
ther  proof  than  a  reference  to  the  proceeding. 

Thus  much,  gentlemen,  I  have  thought  it  incumbent  on 
me  to  observe  to  you,  to  shew  upon  what  principles  I  op- 


SPEAKER.  299 

posed  the  irregular  and  hasty  meeting  which  was  propos- 
ed to  have  been  held  on  Tuesday  last,  and  not  because  I 
wanted  a  disposition  to  give  you  every  opportunity,  con- 
sistent with  your  own  honor,  and  the  dignity  of  the  army, 
to  make  known  your  grievances.     If  my  conduct  hereto- 
fore has  not  evinced  to  you,  that  I  have  been  a  faithful 
friend  to  the  army,  my  declaration  of  it  at  this  time  would 
be  equally  unavailing  and  improper.  But  as  I  was  among 
the  first  who  embarked  in  the  cause  of  our  common  coun- 
try ;  as  I  have  never  left  your  side  one  moment,  but  when 
called  from  you  on  public  duty ;  as  I  have  been  the  constant 
companion  and  witness  of  your  distresses,  and  not  among 
the  last  to  feel  and  acknowledge  your  merits ;  as  I  have 
ever  considered  my  own  military  reputation  as  insepara- 
bly connected  with  that  of  the  army ;  as  my  heart  has  ever 
expanded  with  joy  when  I  have  heard  its  praises,  and  my 
indignation  has  arisen  when  the  mouth  of  detraction  has 
been  opened  against  it,  it  can  scarcely  be  supposed,  at  this 
last  stage  of  the  war,  that  I  am  indifferent  to  its  interests. 
But  how  are  they  to  be  promoted  ?  The  way  is  plain,  says 
the  anonymous  addresser.     "  If  war  continues,  remove 
into  the  unsettled  country  ;  there  establish  yourselves  and 
leavt  an  ungrateful  country  to  defend  itself." — But  who 
are  they  to  defend  ?  Our  wives,  our  children,  our  farms 
and  other  property  which  we  leave  behind  us  ?  or,  in  this 
state  of  hostile  separation,  are  we  to  take  the  two  first, 
(the  latter  cannot  be  removed)  to  perish  in  a  wilderness 
with  hunger,  cold  and  nakedness?  "  If  peace  takes  place, 
never  sheath  your  swords,"  says  he,  "  until  you  have  ob- 
tained full  and  ample  justice."    This  dreadful  alternative 
of  either  deserting  our  country  in  the  extremest  hour  of 
her  distress,  or  turning  our  arms  against  it,  which  is  the 
apparent  object,  unless  Congress  can  be  compelled  into  in- 
stant compliance,  has  something  so  shocking  it  it,  that  hu- 
manity revolts  at  the  idea.     My  God  ;  v-  hat  can  this  wri- 
ter have  in  view,  by  recommending  such  measures  ?  Can 
he  be  a  friend  to  the  army  ?  Can  he  be  a  friend  to  this 
country  ?  Rather  is  he  not  an  insidious  foe  ?  Some  emissa- 
ry perhaps,  from  New-York,  plotting  the  ruin  of  both,  by 
sowing  the  seeds  of  discord  and  separation  between  the 
civil  and  military  powers  of  the  continent  ?  and  what  a 
compliment  does  he  pay  to  our  understandings,  when  he; 


300  AMERICAN 

recommends  measures  in  either  alternative,  impracticable 
in  their  nature  ?  But,  here,  gentlemen,  I  will  drop  the  cur- 
tain; because  it  would  be  as  imprudent  in  me  to  assign  my 
reasons  for  this  opinion,  as  it  would  be  insulting  to  your 
conception  to  suppose  you  stood  in  need  of  them.  A  mo- 
ment's reflection  will  convince  every  dispassionate  mind  of 
the  physical  impossibility  of  carrying  either  proposal  into 
execution.  There  might,  gentlemen,  be  an  impropriety 
in  my  taking  notice,  in  this  address  to  you,  of  an  anony- 
mous production  ; — but  the  manner  in  which  that  per- 
formance has  been  introduced  to  the  army,  the  effect  it 
was  intended  to  have,  together  with  some  other  circum- 
stances, will  amply  justify  my  observation  on  the  tendency 
of  that  writing. 

With  respect  to  the  advice  given  by  the  author,  to  sus- 
pect the  man  who  shall  recommend  moderate  measures 
and  longer  forbearance,  I  spurn  it,  as  every  man  who  re- 
gards that  liberty  and  reveres  that  justice  for  which  we 
contend,  undoubtedly  must ;  for,  if  men  are  to  be  preclud- 
ed from  offering  their  sentiments  on  a  matter  which  may 
involve  the  most  serious  and  alarming  consequences  that 
can  ftivite  the  consideration  of  mankind,  reason  is  of  no 
use  to  us.  The  freedom  of  speech  may  be  taken  away, 
and,  dumb  and  silent,  we  may  be  led,  like  sheep,  to  the 
slaughter.  I  cannot,  in  justice  to  my  own  belief,  and  what 
I  have  great  reason  to  conceive  is  the  intention  of  Con- 
gress, conclude  this  address,  without  giving  it  as  my  de- 
cided opinion,  that,  that  honorable  body  entertain  exalted 
sentiments  of  the  services  of  the  army,  and  from  a  full  con- 
viction of  its  merits  and  sufferings,  will  do  it  complete 
justice  :  That  their  endeavours  to  discover  and  establish 
funds  for  this  purpose  have  been  unwearied,  and  will  not 
cease  till  they  have  succeeded,  I  have  not  a  doubt. 

But,  like  all  other  large  bodies,  where  there  is  a  variety 
of  different  interests  to  reconcile,  their  determinations  are 
slow.  Why  then  should  we  distrust  them  ?  And  in  con- 
sequence of  that  distrust,  adopt  measures  which  may  cast 
a  shade  over  that  glory  which  has  been  so  justly  acquired, 
and  tarnish  the  reputation  of  an  army  which  is  celebrated 
through  all  Europe  for  its  fortitude  and  patriotism?  And 
for  what  is  this  done  ?  To  bring  the  object  we  seek  near- 
er ?  No,  most  certainly  in  my  opinion,  it  will  cast  it  at  a 


SPEAKER.  ciOl 

greater  distance.  For  myself,  and  I  take  no  merit  in  giv- 
ing the  assurance,  being  induced  to  it  from  principles  of 
gratitude,  veracity  and  justice,  a  grateful  sense  of  the  con- 
fidence you  have  ever  placed  in  me,  a  recollection  of  the 
cheerful  assistance  and  prompt  obedience  I  have  experi- 
enced from  you,  under  every  vicissitude  of  fortune,  and 
the  sincere  affection  I  feel  for  an  army  I  have  so  long  had 
the  honor  to  command,  will  oblige  me  to  declare,  in  this 
public  and  solemn  manner,  that  in  the  attainment  of  com- 
plete justice  for  all  your  toils  and  dangers,  and  in  the  gra- 
tification of  every  wish,  so  far  as  may  be  done  consistent- 
ly with  the  great  duty  I  owe  my  country,  and  those  pow- 
ers we  are  bound  to  respect,  you  may  freely  command  ray 
services  to  the  utmost  extent  of  my  abilities. 

"While  I  give  you  these  assurances,  and  pledge  myself, 
in  the  most  unequivocal  manner,  to  exert  whatever  ability 
I  am  possessed  of  in  your  favour,  let  me  entreat  you  gen- 
tlemen, on  your  part,  not  to  take  any  measures,  which, 
viewed  in  the  calm  light  of  reason,  will  lessen  the  dignity, 
ar.d  sully  the  glory  you  have  hitherto  maintained. — Let 
me  request  you  to  rely  on  the  plighted  faith  of  your  ^un- 
tr\',  and  place  a  full  confidence  in  the  purity  of  the  inten- 
tions of  Congress ;  that,  previous  to  your  dissolution  as  an 
army,  they  will  cause  all  our  accounts  to  be  fairly  liqui- 
dated, as  directed  in  the  resolutions  which  were  published 
to  you  two  days  ago  ;  and  that  they  will  adopt  the  most 
effectual  measures  in  their  power  to  render  ample  justice 
to  you  for  your  faithful  and  meritorious  services.  And  let 
me  conjure  you,  in  the  name  of  our  common  country,  as 
you  value  your  own  sacred  honor,  as  you  respect  the  rights 
of  humi'.iiity,  and  as  you  regard  the  miiitvuy  and  national 
character  of  America,  to  express  your  utmost  horror  and 
detestation  of  the  man,  who  wishes,  under  any  specious 
pretences,  to  overturn  the  liberties  of  our  c-mntry ;  and 
who  wickedly  attempts  to  open  the  flood, -gates  of  civil  dis- 
cord, and  deluge  our  rising  empire  in  blood. 

By  thus  determining,  and  thus  acting,  you  will  pursuQ 
the  plain  and  direct  road  to  the  attainment  of  your  wish- 
es ;  you  will  defeat  the  insidious  designs  of  your  enemies, 
who  are  compelled  to  resort  from  open  force  to  secret  arti- 
fice. You  will  give  one  more  distinguished  proof  of  un- 
exampled patriotism  and  patient  virtue,  rising  superior  to 

D  D 


S02  AMERICAN 

the  pressure  of  the  most  complicated  sufferings  :  And  you 
will,  by  the  dignity  of  your  conduct,  afford  occasion  for 
posterity  to  say,  vhen  speaking  of  the  glorious  example 
you  have  exhibited  to  mankind — "  had  this  day  been 
wanting,  the  world  had  never  seen  the  last  stage  of  per- 
fection to  which  human  nature  is  capable  of  attaining." 


GeneralWashington  to  the  President  of  Congress  on  resign* 
ing  his  Commission — 1783. 

"  Mr.  President — The  great  events  on  which  my  resig- 
nation depended,  having  at  length  taken  place,  I  have  now 
the  honor  of  offering  my  sincere  congratulations  to  Con- 
gress, and  of  presenting  myself  before  them  to  surrender 
into  their  hands  the  trust  committed  to  me,  and  to  claim 
the  indulgence  of  retiring  from  the  service  of  my  country. 
"  Happy  in  the  confirmation  of  our  independence  and 
sovereignty,  and  pleased  with  the  opportunity  afforded  the 
United  States  of  becoming  a  respectable  nation,  I  resign 
with  satisfaction  the  appointment  I  accepted  with  diffi- 
dence; a  diffidence  in  my  abilities  to  accomplish  so  ardu- 
ous a  task,  which  however,  was  superseded  by  a  confi- 
dence in  the  rectitude  of  our  cause,  the  support  of  the  su- 
preme power  of  the  union,  and  the  patronage  of  Heaven. 

"  The  successful  termination  of  the  war  has  verified  the 
most  sanguine  expectations ;  aud  my  gratitude  for  the  in- 
terposition of  Providence,  and  the  assistance  I  have  receiv- 
ed from  my  countr)men,  increases  with  every  review  of 
the  momentous  contest. 

"  While  I  repeat  my  obligations  to  the  army  in  general, 
I  should  do  injustice  to  my  own  feelings,  not  to  acknow- 
ledge in  this  place,  the  peculiar  services  and  distinguished 
merits  of  the  persons  who  have  been  attached  to  my  per- 
son during  the  war.  It  was  impossible  the  choice  of  con- 
fidential officers  to  compose  my  family  could  have  been 
more  fortunate.  Permit  me.  Sir,  to  recommend  in  par- 
ticular, those  who  have  continued  in  the  service  to  the  pre- 
sent moment,  as  worthy  of  the  favourable  notice  and  pa- 
tronage of  Congress. 

••'•  I  consider  it  as  an  indispensable  duty  to  close  this  last 
solf^mn  act  of  my  official  life,  by  commending  the  interests 


SPEAKER.  303 

of  our  dearest  country  to  the  protection  of  Almighty  God, 
and  those  who  have  the  superintendence  of  them  to  his 
holy  keeping. 

"  Having  now  finished  the  work  assigned  me,  I  retire 
from  the  great  theatre  of  action  ;  and,  bidding  an  aSection- 
ate  farewolto  this  august  body,  under  whose  orders  I  have 
long  acted,  I  here  offer  my  commision,  and  take  my  leave 
of  ail  the  employments  of  public  life.*' 


The  Answer  of  General  Mijflin^  the  President  of  Congress^ 
to  the  foregoing'  Speech, 

«  Sir — The  United  States  in   Congress  assembled,  re- 
ceive with  emotions  too  affecting  for  utterance,  the  solemn 
resip;nation  of  the  authorities  under  which  you  have  led     •      j 
their  troops  with  success,  through  a  perilous  and  doubtful 
war. 

"  Called  upon  by  your  country  to  defend  its  invaded  ^   .    j 
rights,  you  accepted  the  sacred  charge  before  it  had  form-'" ■•>'    | 
ed  alliances,  and  whilst  it  was  without  friends  or  a  govern- 
ment to  support  you. 

"  You  have  conducted  the  great  military  contest  with 
wisdom  and  fortitude,  invariably  regarding  the  rights  of 
the  civil  power  through  all  disasters  and  changes.  You 
have  by  the  love  and  confidence  of  your  fellow-citizens, 
enabled  them  to  display  their  martial  genius,  and  transmit 
their  fame  to  posterity  :  you  have  persevered  till  th^ise 
United  States,  aided  by  a  magnanimous  king  and  nation, 
have  been  enabled  under  a  just  Providence,  to  close  the 
war  in  safety,  freedom,  and  independence  ;  on  which  hap- 
py event  we  sincerely  join  you  in  congratulations. 

*^  Having  defended  the  standard  of  libert}-  in  this  new 
world;  havmg  t \ught  a  It-sson  useful  to  those ^mcJio  in fiict, 
and  to  those  who  ieei  oppression,  you  retire  from  the  great 
theatre  of  action  with  the  blessings  of  your  fellow-citi- 
zens: but  the  giory  ol  your  virtues  will  not  terminate  with 
your  military  command,  it  will  continue  to  ^mimate  re- 
motest ages.  We  ft  tl  with  you  our  o'oligations  to  the  ar- 
my in  g.ncral,  and  will  particularly  chiirg.-  ourselves  with 
the  intm-st  of  those  ronfidtntial  oiiitxrs  wtio  have  attend- 
ed your  person  to  this  affecting  moment. 


S04  AMERICAN 

"  We  join  you  in  commending  the  interests  of  our  dear- 
est country  to  the  protection  of  Ahnighty  God,  beseeching 
him  tc-  dispose  the  ht  arts  and  nunds  of  its  citizens  to  im- 
prove the  opportunity  afforded  them  of  becoming  a  happy 
snd  respect&ble  nation  ;  and  for  you,  we  address  to  Him 
onr  earnest  prayers,  that  a  life  so  beloved,  may  be  foster- 
ed with  all  his  care  ;  that  your  days  may  be  happy  as 
they  have  been  illustrious,  and  that  he  will  finally  give  you 
that  reward  which  this  world  cannot  give." 


Farewel  Address  of  General  Washzngton^  to  the  Armies 
of  the  United  States, 

Rocky-Uill,  near  Princeton,  November  2,  1783. 

"  The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  after  giv- 
ing the  most  honorable  testimony  to  the  merits  of  the  fe- 
deral armies,  and  presenting  them  with  the  thanks  of  their 
country,  for  their  long,  eminent,  and  faithful  service,  hav- 
ing thought  proper,  by  their  proclamation,  bearing  date 
i\\Q  18th  of  October  last,  to  discharge  such  part  of  the 
•roops  as  were  engaged  for  the  war,  and  to  permit  the  of- 
ficers on  furlough  to  retire  from  service,  from  and  after 
to-morrow  ;  which  proclamation  havmg  been  communica- 
ted in  the  public  papers,  for  the  information  and  govern- 
ment of  all  concerned,  it  only  remains  lor  the  commander 
in  chief  to  address  himself  once  more,  and  that  for  the 
last  time,  to  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  (however 
widely  dispersed  individuals  who  compose  them  may  be,) 
and  to  bid  them  an  affectionate— a  long  farewel. 

"  But  before  the  commander  in  chief  takes  his  final 
Jeavt  of  those  he  holds  most  dear,  he  wishes  to  indulge 
himself  a  few  moments  in  calling  to  mind  a  slight  view  of 
the  past : — he  will  then  take  the  liberty  of  exploring,  with 
his  military  friends,  their  future  prospects  ;  of  advising 
the  general  line  of  conduct,  which,  in  his  opinion,  ought 
to  be  pursued  ;  and  he  will  conclude  the  address,  by  ex* 
pressing  the  obligations  he  feels  himself  under  for  the  spi- 
rited and  able  assistance  he  has  experienced  from  them, 
in  the  ptrlormance  of  an  arduous  office. 

A  lonitu  p  ation  of  the  complete  attainment,  (at  a  pe- 
riod earlier  than  could  have  been  expected,)  of  the  object 


SPEAKER.  305 

for  which  we  contended,  against  so  formidable  a  powt-r, 
cannot,  but  inspire  us  with  astonishment  and  gratitude. 
The  disadvantageous  circumstances  on  our  part,  under 
which  the  war  was  undertaken,  can  never  be-  for^iotten. 
The  signal  interpositions  of  Providence,  in  our  feeble  con- 
dition, were  such  as  could  scarcely  escape  the  attention  of 
the  mostunobserving;  while  the  unparalleled  perseverance 
of  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  through  .  Imost  every 
possit)le  suffering  and  dis<  ouragement,  for  the  sp-^ce  of  eight 
long  years,  was  little  short  of  a  standing  miracle 

It  is  not  the  meaning,  nor  within  the  compass  of  this 
address,  to  detail  the  hardships  peculiarly  incident  to  our 
service,  or  to  describe  the  distresses  which,  in  several  in- 
stances, have  resulted  from  the  extremes  of  hunger  and 
nakedness,  combined  with  the  ri^^ours  of  an  inclement  sea- 
son :  nor  is  it  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  dark  sid?  of  our 
past  affairs. 

Every  American  officer  and  soldier  must  now  console 
himself  for  any  unpleasant  circumstance  which  may  have 
occurred,  by  a  recollection  of  the  uncommon  scenes  in 
which  he  has  been  called  to  act  no  inglorious  part,  and  the 
astonishing  events  of  which  he  has  been  a  witness — events 
which  have  seldom,  if  ever  before,  taken  place  on  the 
stage  of  human  action  ;  nor  can  they  probably  ever  hap- 
pen again.  For  who  has  before  seen  a  disciplined  army 
formed  at  once  from  such  raw  materials  ?  Who  that  wa?5 
not  a  witness,  could  imagine  that  the  most  violent  local, 
prejudices  would  cease  so  s«;on,  and  that  men  who  came 
from  the  different  parts  of  the  continent,  strongly  disposed 
by  the  habits  of  education  to  despise  and  quarrel  v/ith 
each  other,  would  instantly  become  but  one  patriotic  band 
of  brothers  ?  Or  who  that  was  not  on  the  spot,  can  tracex 
the  steps  by  which  such  a  wonderful  revolution  has  beef» 
effected,  and  such  a  glorious  period  put  to  all  oar  warlike 
toils  ? 

It  is  universally  acknowledged,  that  the  enlarged  pros- 
pects  of  happiness,  opened  by  the  confirmation  of  our  in- 
dependence and  sovereignty,  almost  exceed  the  power  of 
description:  and  shall  not  the  brave  men  who  have  con- 
tributed so  essentially  to  these  inestimable  acquisitions, 
retiring  victorious  from  the  field  of  war  to  the  field  of  a- 
gricukure,  participate  in  all  the  blessing&whicbto&lkem 

D  D  2 


206  AMERICAN 

obtained  ?  In  such  a  republic,  who  will  exclude  them  from 
the  rights  of  citizens,  and  the  fruits  of  their  labours  ?  In 
such  a  country,  so  happily  circumstanced,  the  pursuits  of 
commerce,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  will  unfold  to 
industry  the  certain  road  to  competence.  To  those  hardy 
soldiers  who  are  actuated  by  the  spirit  of  adventure,  the 
fisheries  will  afford  ample  and  profitable  employment ;  and 
the  extensive  and  fertile  regions  of  the  west,  will  yield  a 
most  happy  asylum  to  those  who,  fond  of  domestic  enjoy- 
ment, are  seeking  personal  independence.  Nor  is  it  pos- 
sible to  conceive  that  any  one  of  the  United  States  will 
prefer  a  national  bankruptcy,  and  the  dissolution  of  the  u- 
nion,  to  a  compliance  with  the  requisitions  of  Congress, 
and  the  payment  of  its  just  debts  ;  so  that  the  officers  "and 
soldiers  may  expect  considerable  assistance,  in  recommen- 
cing their  civil  occupations,  from  the  sums  due  to  them 
from  the  public,  which  must  and  will  most  inevitably  be 
paid. 

In  order  to  effect  this  desirable  purpose,  and  remove 
the  prejudices  v/hich  may  have  taken  possession  of  the 
minds  of  any  of  the  good  people  of  the  states,  it  is  ear- 
nestly recommended  to  all  the  troops,  that,  with  strong  at- 
tachment to  the  union,  they  should  carry  with  them  into 
civil  society  the  most  conciliating  dispositions,  and  that 
they  should  prove  themselves  not  less  virtuous  and  useful 
as  citizens,  than  they  have  been  victorious  as  soldiers. 
What  though  there  should  be  some  envious  individuals, 
who  are  unwilling  to  pay  the  debt  the  public  has  contract- 
ed, or  to  yield  the  tribute  due  to  merit ;  yet,  let  such  un- 
worthy treatment  produce  no  invective,  or  any  instance  of 
inttn-iperate  conduct.  Let  it  be  remembered,  that  the  un- 
biassed voice  of  the  free  citi;3ens  of  the  United  States, 
has  promised  the  just  reward,  a^d  given  the  merited  ap- 
plause. Let  it  be  known  and  remembered,  that  therepu- 
tati^^n  of  the  federal  armies  is  estijblished  beyond  the 
reach  of  malevolence  ;  and  let  a  consciousness  of  their 
achirvements  and  fame,  still  excite  the  men  who  composed 
them  to  honorable  actions,  under  the  persuc^ion  that  the 
private  virtues  of  economy,  prudence,  and  industry,  will 
not  be  less  amiable  in  civil  life,  than  the  more  splendid 
qualities  of  valour^  perseverance,  and" enterprise,  vv^ere  m 
ihe  field.     Every  one  may  rest  assiured,  that  much,  very 


SPEAKER.  SO? 

mucii  of  the  future  happiness  of  the  officers  and  men,  will 
depend  upon  the  ^ise  and  nianly  conduct  which  shall  be 
adopted  by  them,  when  they  are  mingled  with  the  great 
body  of  the  community.  And,  although  the  general  has 
so  frequently  given  it  as  his  opinion,  in  the  most  public 
and  explicit  manner,  that  unless  the  principles  of  the  fede- 
ral government  were  properly  supported,  and  the  powers 
of  the  union  increased,  the  honor,  dignity,  and  justice  of 
the  nation  would  be  lost  for  ever  ;  yet  he  cannot  help  re- 
peating, on  this  occasion,  so  interesting  a  sentiment,  and 
leaving  it  as  his  last  injunction  to  every  officer  and  every 
soldier,  who  may  view  the  subject  in  the  same  serious  point 
of  light,  to  add  his  best  endeavours  to  those  of  his  worthy 
fellow-citizens,  towards  effecting  these  great  and  valuable 
purposes,  on  which  our  very  existence  as  a  nation  so  ma- 
terially depends. 

The  commander  in  chief  conceives  little  is  now  wanting 
to  enable  the  soldier  to  change  the  military  character  into 
that  of  the  citizen,  but  that  steady,  decent  tenour  of  beha- 
viour, which  has  generally  distinguished  not  only  the  ar- 
my under  his  immediate  command,  but  the  different  de- 
tachments and  armies,  through  the  course  of  the  war. 
From  their  good  sense  and  prudence,  he  anticipates  the 
happiest  consequences  ;  and  while  he  congratulates  them 
on  the  glorious  occasion  which  renders  their  services  in  the 
field  no  longer  necessary,  he  wishes  to  express  the  strong 
obligations  he  feels  hinnself  under,  for  the  assistance  he 
has  received  from  every  class,  and  in  every  instance.  He 
presents  his  thanks  in  the  most  serious  and  affectionate 
manner,  to  the  general  officers,  as  well  for  their  counsels 
on  many  interesting  occasions,  as  for  their  ardour  in  pro- 
moting the  success  of  the  plans  he  had  adopted — to  the 
commandants  of  regiments,  and  corps,  and  to  the  other 
officers,  for  their  zeal  and  attention  m  carrying  his  orders 
promptly  into  execution — to  the  staff,  tor  their  alacrit)  and 
exactness  in  performing  tht  duties  of  their  several  dei  art- 
ments  ;  and  to  the  non-commissioned  officers  and  prvate 
soldiers,  for  their  extraordinary  patience  and  sufferi;;g,  as 
well  as  their  invnicible  fortitude  in  action.  To  the  vari- 
ous branches  of  the  army,  the  general  takes  this  last  and 
solemn  opportunity  of  professing  his  inviolable  attachment 
and  friendship.     He  wishes  more  than  bare  professions 


308  AMERICAN 

were  in  his  pow^r,  that  he  was  really  able  to  be  useful  to 
them  all  in  future  life.  He  flatters  himself,  however,  they 
will  do  him  the  justice  to  believe,  that  whatever  could 
with  propriety  be  attempted  by  him,  has  been  done. 

And  being  now  to  conclude  these  his  last  public  orders, 
to  take  his  ultimate  leave  in  a  short  time  of  the  military 
character,  and  to  bid  a  final  adieu  to  the  armies  he  has  so 
long  had  the  honor  to  command,  he  can  only  again  offer 
in  their  behalf,  his  recommendations  to  their  grateful 
country,  and  his  prayers  to  the  God  of  armies.  May  am- 
ple justice  be  done  ihem  here,  and  may  the  choicest  of 
heaven's  favours,  boih  here  and  hereafter,  attend  those 
who,  under  the  divine  anspices,  have  secured  innumerable 
blessings  for  others.  With  these  wishes,  and  this  bene- 
diction, the  commander  in  chief  is  about  to  retire  from 
service.  The  curtain  of  separation  will  soon  be  drawn^ 
and  the  military  scene  to  him  will  be  closed  forever." 


The  Mayor  of  Alexandria  to  General  Washington  on  his 
leaving  that  neighbourhood  to  take  on  him  the  office  of 
President  of  the  United  States — 1789. 

*'  Again  }our  lountry  commands  your  care.  Obedient 
to  its  wishes,  un'rti'idful  of  your  ease,  we  see  you  again 
relipqui&hing  the  bliss  of  retirement,  and  ihis  too,  at  a  pe- 
riod ot  life,  when  nature  itself  seems  to  authorise  a  pre- 
ference of  repose. 

"Not  to  extol  your  glory  as  a  soldier  ;  not  to  pour  forth 
our  gratitude  for  past  services  ;  not  to  acknowicdg;  the 
justice  of  the  unexampled  honor  whirh  has  been  confer- 
red upon  you  by  the  spontaneous  and  unanimous  suffrage 
of  three  millions  of  freemen,  in  your  election  to  ihe  su- 
preme magistracy,  nor  to  admire  the  patriotism  which  di- 
rects >our  conduct,  do  your  neighbours  and  friends  now 
address  you.  Themes  less  splendid,  but  more  endearing, 
impress  our  minds.  The  first  and  best  of  citizens  must 
leave  us  ;  our  aged  must  lose  their  ornament ;  our  youth 
their  model ;  our  agriculture  its  improver ;  our  commerce 
its  friend  ;  our  infant  academy  its  protector  ;  our  poor 
their  benefactor ;  and  the  interior  navigation  of  the  Poto- 
mac, (an  event  replete  with  the  most  extensive  utility,  al- 


SPEAKER.  209 

ready  by  your  unremitted  exertions  brought  into  partial 
use,)  its  institutor  and  promoter. 

"  Farewel.  Go,  and  make  a  grateful  people  happy — a 
people  who  will  be  doubly  grateful  when  they  contemplate 
this  recent  sacrifice  for  their  interest. 

**  To  that  Being  who  maketh  and  unmaketh  at  his  will, 
we  commend  you  ;  and  after  the  accomplishment  of  the 
arduous  business  to  which  you  are  called,  may  he  restore 
to  us  again  the  best  of  men,  and  the  most  beloved  fellow- 


Cencral  Washmgtoij^s  Ansxver  to  the  foregoing, 

"  Gentlemen — Although  I  ought  not  to  conceal,  yet  I 
cannot  describe  the  painful  emotions  which  I  felt,  in  being 
called  upon  to  determine  whether  I  would  accept  or  re- 
fuse the  Presidency  of  the  United  States.  The  unanimi- 
ty in  the  choice  j  the  opinion  of  my  friends  communicated 
from  different  parts  of  Europe  as  well  as  from  /imerica  ; 
the  apparent  wish  of  those  who  were  not  entirely  satisfied 
with  the  constitution  in  its  present  form,  and  an  ardent 
desire  on  my  own  part  to  be  instrumental  in  connecting  the 
good  will  of  my  countrymen  towards  each  other,  have  in- 
duced an  acceptance.  Those  who  know  me  best,  (and 
you,  my  fellow-citizens,  are,  from  your  situation,  in  that 
number,)  know  better  than  any  others,  n^y  love  o'<  retire- 
ment is  so  great,  that  no  earthly  consider  uion,  short  of  a 
conviction  of  duiy,  could  have  prevailed  upon  me  to  de- 
part from  my  resolution  '*  never  more  to  take  any  share 
in  transactions  of  a  public  nciture  ;"  lor  at  u\\  age,  and  in 
my  circumstances,  what  prospects  or  advantages  could  I 
propose  to  myself  from  embarking  igain  on  the  tempest- 
uous and  uncertain  ocean  of  public  life  ? 

"  I  do  not  feel  myself  under  the  necessity  of  majcing 
public  declarations  in  order  to  convince  you,  gentlemen,  of 
my  attachment  to  yourselves,  and  regard  for  your  interests. 
The  whole  tenour  of  my  life  has  been  open  to  your  inspec- 
tion, and  my  past  actions,  r:sther  than  my  present  declara- 
tions, must  be  the  pledge  of  my  future  conduct. 

"  In  the  mean  time,  I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  the 
expressions  of  kindness  contained  in  your  valedictory  ad- 


SIO  AMERICAN 

dress*  It  is  true,  just  after  having  bade  adieu  to  my  do- 
mest  connexions,  this  tender  proof  of  your  friendship  is 
but  too  well  calculated  still  farther  to  awaken  my  sensibi- 
lity, and  increase  my  regret  at  parting  from  the  enjoyments 
of  private  life. 

**  All  that  now  remains  for  me,  is  to  commit  myself  and 
you  to  the  protection  of  that  beneficent  Being,  who,  on  a 
former  occasion  hath  happily  brought  us  together,  after  a 
long  and  distressing  separation.  Perhaps  the  same  gra- 
cious Providence  will  again  indulge  me.  Unutterable  sen- 
sations must  then  be  left  to  more  expressive  silence,  while 
from  an  aching  heart  1  bid  all  my  affectionate  friends  and 
kind  neighbours  farewel." 


Preside7it  Washington!' s  Speech  to  thejirst  Congress^  April 
30th,  1789. 

Fellow'.Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Among  the  vicissitudes  incident  to  life,  no  event  could 
have  filled  me  v/lth  greater  anxieties  than  that  of  which 
the  notification  was  transmitted  by  your  order,  and  re- 
ceivtd  on  the  lith  day  of  the  present  month.  On  the  one 
hand,  I  was  summoned  by  my  country,  whose  \'oice  I  can 
never  hear  but  with  veneration  and  love,  from  a  retreat 
which  I  had  chosen  with  the  fondest  predcliction,  and,  in 
my  flattering  hopes,  with  an  immutable  decision  as  the 
asylum  of  my  declining  years  :  A  retreat  which  was  ren- 
dered every  day  more  necessary  as  well  as  more  dear  to 
me,  by  the  addition  of  habit  to  inclination,  and  of  frequent 
interruptions  in  my  health  to  ihe  gradual  waste  committed 
on  it  by  time.  On  the  other  hand,  the  magnitude  and  diffi- 
culty of  the  trust  to  which  the  voice  of  my  country  called 
ii:ie,  being  sufficient  to  awaken  in  the  wisest  and  most  ex- 
perienced of  her  citizens,  a  distrustful  scrutiny  into  his 
qualifications,  could  not  but  overwhelm  with  despondence 
one,  who,  inheriting  inferior  endowments  from  nature,  and 
unpractised  in  the  duties  of  civil  administration,  ought  to 
be  peculiarly  conscious  of  his  own  deficiences.  In  this 
conflict  of  emotions,  all  I  dare  aver  is,  that  it  has  been  my 
faithful  study  to  collect  my  duty  from  a  just  appreciation 
of  every  circumstance  by  which  it  might  be  affected.  Ail  I 


SPEAKER.  311 

dare  hope  is,  that  if  in  executing  this  task  I  have  been  too 
much  swayed  by  a  grateful  remembrance  of  former  instan- 
ces, or  by  an  affectionate  sensibiHty  to  this  transcendant 
proof  of  the  confidence  of  my  fellow-citizens  ;  and  have 
thence  too  little  consulted  my  incapacity  as  well  as  disin- 
clination for  the  weighty  and  untried  cares  before  me  ;  my 
error  will  be  palliated  by  the  motives  which  misled  me, 
and  its  consequences  be  judged  by  my  country,  with  some 
share  of  the  partiality  in  which  they  originated. 

Such  being  the  impressions  under  which  I  have,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  public  summons,  repaired  to  the  present  sta- 
tion, it  would  be  peculiarly  improper  to  omit  in  this  first 
official  act,  my  fervent  supplications  to  that  Almighty  Be- 
ing, who  rules  over  the  universe,  who  presides  in  the  coun- 
cils of  nations,  and  whose  providential  aids  can  supply  ev- 
ery human  defect,  that  his  benediction  may  consecrate  to 
the  liberties  and  happiness  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  a  government  instituted  by  themselves  for  these 
essential  purposes,  and  may  enable  every  instrument  em- 
ployed in  its  administration,  to  execute  with  success,  the 
functions  allotted  to  his  charge.  In  tendering  this  homage 
to  the  great  Author  of  every  public  and  private  good,  I 
assure  myself  that  it  expresses  your  sentiments  not  less  ^ 
than  my  own  ;  nor  those  of  my  fellow-citizens  at  large 
less  than  either.  No  people  can  be  bound  to  acknowlt^dge 
and  adore  the  invisible  hand  which  conducts  the  affairs  or 
men,  more  than  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Every 
step,  oy  which  they  have  advanced  to  the  character  of  an 
independent  nation,  seems  to  have  been  distinguished  by 
some  token  of  providential  agency.  And  in  the  important 
revolution  just  accomplished  in  the  system  of  their  united 
government,  the  tranquil  deliberations  and  voluntary  con- 
sent of  so  many  distinct  communities,  from  which  the  event 
has  resulted,  cannot  be  compared  with  the  means  by  which 
most  governments  have  been  est;.bljshtd,  without  s  )me 
return  ot  pious  gratitude  along  w  th  an  humble  anticipa- 
tion of  the  future  blessings  which  the  past  seem  to  pre- 
sage. These  reflections,  arising  out  of  the  present  cri- 
sis, have  forced  themselves  too  strongly  on  ,my  mind  to 
be  suppressed.  Yuu  will  join  wiUi  ;Yit ,  I  trust,  in  thinking 
that  there  are  none  under  the  influence  of  which,  the  pro- 


S12  AMERICAN 

ceedings  of  a  new  and  free  government  can  more  auspici- 
ously commence. 

By  the  article  establishing  the  executive  department,  it 
ia  made  the  duty  of  the  president  *'  to  recommend  to 
your  consideration,  such  measures  as  he  shall  judge  neces- 
sary and  expedient."  The  circumstances  under  which  I 
now  meet  you,  will  acquit  me  from  entering  into  that  sub- 
ject farther  than  to  refer  you  to  the  great  constitutional 
charter  under  which  we  are  assembled ;  and  which,  in  de- 
fining your  powers,  designates  the  objects  to  which  your 
attention  is  to  be  given.  It  will  be  more  consistent  with 
those  circumstances,  and  far  more  congenial  with  the  feel- 
ings which  actuate  me,  to  substitute  in  place  of  a  recom- 
mendation of  particular  measures,  the  tribute  that  is  due 
to  the  talents,  the  rectitude,  and  the  patriotism  which  a- 
dorn  the  ch*iracters  selected  to  devise  and  adopt  them.  In 
these  honorable  qualifications,  I  behold  the  surest  pledges, 
that  as  on  one  side,  no  local  prejudices  or  attachments,  no 
separate  views  nor  party  animosities,  will  misdirect  the 
comprehensive  and  equal  eye  which  ought  to  watch  over 
this  great  assemblage  of  communities  and  interests  :  So, 
on  another,  that  the  foundations  of  our  national  policy  will 
be  laid  in  the  pure  and  immutable  principles  of  private 
morality  ;  and  the  pre-eminence  of  a  free  government  be 
exemplified  by  all  the  attributes  which  can  win  the  affec- 
tions of  its  citizens,  and  command  the  respect  of  the  world. 

1  dwell  on  this  prospect  with  every  satisfaction  which 
an  ardent  love  for  my  country  can  inspire  ;  since  there  is 
no  truth  more  thoroughly  established  than  that  there  ex- 
ists in  the  economy  and  course  of  nature,  an  indissoluble 
union  between  virtue  and  happiness — between  duty  and  ad- 
vantage— between  the  genuine  maxims  of  an  honest  and 
magnanimous  policy,  and  the  solid  rewards  of  public  pros- 
perity and  felicity.  Since  we  ought  to  be  no  less  persua- 
ded that  the  propitious  smiles  of  Heaven  can  never  be  ex- 
pected on  a  nation  that  disregards  the  eternal  rules  of  or- 
der and  right  which  Heaven  itself  has  ordained.  And  since 
the  preservation  of  the  sacred  fire  of  liberty,  and  the  des- 
tiny,of  the  ri  pubhcan  model  of  government,  are  justly  con- 
sidered as  deeply,  perhaps,  as  finally  staked,  on  the  expe- 
riment entrusted  to  the  hands  of  the  American  people. 


SPEAKER.  313 

Besides  the  ordinary  objects  submitted  to  your  care,  it 
will  remain  with  your  judgment  to  decide  how  far  an  ex- 
ercise of  the  occasional  power  delegated  by  the  fifth  arti- 
cle of  the  constitution  is  rendered  expedient  at  the  pre- 
sent juncture  by  the  nature  of  objections  which  have  been 
urged  against  the  system,  or  by  the  degree  of  inquietude 
which  has  given  birth  to  them.  Instead  of  undertaking 
particular  recommendations  on  this  subject,  in  which  I 
could  be  guided  by  no  lights  derived  from  official  oppor- 
tunities, I  shall  again  give  way  to  my  entire  confidence  in 
your  discernment  and  pursuit  of  the  public  good  :  For  I 
assure  myself,  that  whilst  you  carefully  avoid  every  al- 
teration which  might  endanger  the  benefits  of  an  united 
and  effective  government,  or  which  ought  to  await  the  fu- 
ture lessons  of  experience  ;  a  reverence  for  the  charac- 
teristic rights  of  freemen,  and  a  regard  for  the  public 
harmony,  will  sufficiently  influence  your  deliberations  on 
the  question,  how  far  the  former  can  be  more  impregnably 
fortified,  or  the  latter  be  safely  and  more  advantageously 
promoted. 

To  the  preceding  observations  I  have  one  to  add,  which 
will  be  most  properly  addressed  to  the  house  of  represen- 
tatives. It  concerns  myself,  anc^will  therefore  be  as  brief 
as  possible.  When  I  was  first  honored  with  a  call  into  the 
service  of  my  country,  then  on  the  eve  of  an  arduous  strug- 
gle for  its  liberties,  the  light  in  which  I  contemplated  my 
duty,  required  that  I  should  renounce  every  pecuniary  com- 
pensation. From  this  resolution  I  have  in  no  instance  de- 
parted. And  being  still  under  the  impressions  which  pro- 
duced it,  I  must  decline  as  inapplicable  to  myself,  any  share 
in  the  personal  emoluments,  which  may  be  indispensibly  in- 
cluded in  a  permanent  provision  for  the  executive  depart- 
ment ;  and  must  accordingly  pray  that  the  pecuniary  esti- 
mates for  the  station  in  which  1  am  placed,  may,  ouring 
my  continuation  in  it,  be  limited  to  such  actual  expendi- 
tures as  the  public  good  m^  be  thought  to  require. 

Having  thus  imparted  to  you  my  sentiments,  as  they 
have  beea  awakened  by  the  occasion  which  brings  us  to- 
gether, I  shall  take  my  present  leave  j  but  not  without  re- 
sorting once  more  to  the  benign  Parent  of  the  human  race, 
in  humble  supplication,  that  since  he  has  been  pleased.to 
favour  the  American  people  with  opportunities  for  delifc 

Ee 


014  AMERICAN 

crating  in  perfect  tranquillity,  and  dispositions  for  deciding 
with  unparalleled  unanimity  on  a  form  of  government  for 
the  security  of  their  union,  and  the  advancement  of  their 
happiness  ;  so  his  divine  blessing  may  be  equally  conspicu- 
ous in  the  enlarged  views,  the  temperate  consultations,  and 
the  wise  measures  on  which  the  success  of  this  govern- 
ment must  depend. 


Presidejit  Washington's  Speech  on  opening  the  third  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States^  December  3d,  1793. 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 

Since  the  commencement  of  the  term,  for  which  I  have 
been  again  called  to  office,  no  fit  occasion  has  arisen  for  ex- 
pressing to  my  fellow-citizens  at  large,  the  deep  and  res- 
pectful sense,  which  I  feel,  of  the  renewed  testimony  of 
public  approbation.  While  on  the  one  hand,  it  awakened 
my  gratitude  for  all  those  instances  of  affectionate  partia- 
lity, with  which  I  have  been  honored  by  my  country;  on 
the  other,  it  could  not  prevent  an  earnest  wish  for  that  re- 
tirement, from  which  RQ  private  consideration  should  ever 
have  torn  me.  Butiafllienced  by  the  belief,  that  my  con- 
duct would  be  estimated  according  to  its  real  motives ; 
and  that  the  people,  and  the  authorities  derived  from  thf  m, 
would  support  exertions,  having  nothing  personal  for  their 
object,  I  have  obeyed  the  suffrage  which  commanded  me 
to  resume  the  executive  power  ;  and  I  humbly  implore  that 
Being,  on  whose  will  the  fate  of  nations  depends,  to  crown 
with  success  our  mutual  endeavours  for  the  general  happi- 
ness. 

As  soon  as  the  war  in  Europe  had  embraced  those 
powers  with  whom  the  United  States  have  the  most  ex- 
tensive relation ;  there  was  reason  to  apprehend  that  our 
intercourse  with  them  might  be  interrupted,  and  our  dis- 
position for  peace,  drawn  into  question,  by  the  suspicions 
too  often  entertained  by  beUigerent  nations.  It  seemed 
therefore  to  be  my  duty,  to  admonish  our  citizens  of  the 
consequences  of  a  contraband  trade,  and  of  hostile  acts  to 
any  of  the  parties  ;  and  to  obtain,  by  a  declaration  of  the 
existing  legal  stat^  of  things,  an  easier  admission  of  ou* 
rights  to  the  immuRities,  belonging  to  our  situation.  Un- 


SPEAKER.  3i3 

der  these  impressions,  the  proclamation,  which  will  be  laid 
before  vou  was  issued. 

In  this  posture  of  af^iirs,  both  new  and  delicate,  I  re- 
solved to  adopt  general  rules  which  should  conform  to  the 
treaties,  and  assert  the  privileges  of  the  United  States. 
These  were  reduced  into  a  system,  which  will  i>e  commu- 
nicated to  you.  Although  I  have  not  thought  myself  at 
liberty  to  forbid  the  sale  of  the  prizes,  permitted  by  our 
treaty  of  commerce  with  France  to  be  brought  into  our 
ports  ;  I  have  not  refused  to  cause  them  to  be  restored, 
when  they  were  taken  within  the  protection  of  our  territo- 
ry; or  by  vessels  commissioned  or  equipped  in  a  warlike 
form  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States. 

It  rests  with  the  wisdom  of  Congress  to  correct,  im- 
prove or  enforce  this  plan  of  procedure,  and  it  will  proba- 
bly be  found  expedient  to  extend  the  legal  code,  and  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  to  m;my 
cases  which,  though  dependent  on  principles  already  re- 
cognized, demand  some  further  provisions. 

When  individuals  shall,  within  the  United  States,  array 
themselves  in  hostility  against  any  of  the  powers  at  war  ; 
or  enter  upon  military  expeditions,  or  enterprises  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States;  or  usurp  and  exer- 
cise judicial  authority  within  the  United  States  ;  or  where 
the  penalties  on  violations  of  the  law  of  nations  ma\'  have 
been  indistinctly  marked,  or  are  inadequate  ;  these  offt  ices 
cannot  receive  too  early  and  close  an  attention,  and  require 
prompt  and  decisive  remedies. 

Whatsoever  those  remedies  may  be,  they  will  be  well 
administered  by  the  judiciary,  who  possess  a  long  estab- 
lished course  of  investigation,  effectual  process,  and  offi- 
cers in  the  habit  of  executing  it.  In  like  manner,  as  se- 
veral of  the  courts  have  doubted^  under  particular  circum- 
stances, their  power  to  liberate  the  vessels  of  a  nation  at 
peace,  and  even  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  although 
seized  under  a  false  colour  of  being  hostile  property  ;  and 
have  denied  their  power  to  liberate  certain  captures  within 
the  protection  of  our  territory  ;  it  would  seem  proper  to 
regulate  their  jurisdiction  in  these  points.  But  if  the  Ex- 
ecutive is  to  be  the  resort  in  either  of  the  two  last  men- 
tioned cases,  it  is  hoped,  that  he  will  be  authorised  by  lawj 


316  AMERICAN 

to  have  facts  ascertained  by  the  courts,  when,  for  his  own 
information  he  shall  request  it. 

I  cannot  recommend  to  your  notice  measures  for  the 
fulfilment  of  our  duties  to  the  rest  of  thvi  world,  without 
again  pressinguponyou  the  necessity  of  placing  ourselves  in 
a  condition  of  complete  defence,  and  of  exacting  from  them 
the  iulfilment  of  their  dutits  towards  us.  The  United  States 
ought  not  to  indulge  a  persu.^sion,  that,  contrary  to  the  or- 
dtr  of  human  events,  they  will  forever  keep  at  a  distance 
those  painful  appeals  to  arms  with  which  the  history  of 
every  othtr  nation  abounds.  There  is  a  rank  due  to  the 
United  Slates  among  nations  ;  which  will  be  withheld,  if 
not  absolutely  lost,  by  the  reputation  of  weakness.  If  we 
desire  to  avoid  insult,  we  must  be  able  to  repel  it  j  if  we  de- 
sire to  secure  peace,  one  of  the  most  powerful  instruments 
of  our  rising  prosperity,  it  must  be  known,  that  we  are  at 
all  times  ready  for  war. 

The  documents  which  will  be  presented  to  you,  will 
shew  the  amount,  and  kinds  of  arms  and  military  stores 
now  in  our  magazines  and  arsenals ;  and  yet  an  addition 
even  to  these  supplies  cannot  with  prudence  be  neglected; 
as  it  would  leave  nothing  to  the  uncertainty  of  procuring 
a  warlike  apparatus  in  the  moment  of  public  danger.  Nop 
can  such  arrangements,  with  such  objects,  be  exposed  to  the 
censure  or  jealousy  of  the  warmest  friends  of  republican  go- 
vernment. They  are  incapable  of  abuse  in  the  hands  of  the 
militia,  who  ought  to  possess  a  pride  in  being  the  deposi- 
tory of  the  force  of  the  Republic,  and  may  be  trained  to  a 
degree  of  energy,  equal  to  every  military  exigency  of  the 
United  States.  But  it  is  an  inquiry,  which  cannot  be  too 
solemnly  pursued,  whether  the  act,  "  more  effectually  to 
provide  for  the  national  defence  by  establishing  an  uniform 
militia  throughout  the  United  States,"  has  organized  them 
so  as  to  produce  their  full  effect ;  whether  your  own  ex- 
perience in  the  several  States  has  not  detected  some  im- 
perfections in  the  scheme ;  and  whether  a  material  feature 
ia  an  improvement  of  it,  ought  not  to  be  to  afford  an  op- 
portunity for  the  study  of  those  branches  of  the  military 
art,  which  can  scarcely  ever  be  attained  by  practice  alone  ? 
The  connexion  of  the  United  States  with  Europe,  has 
become  extremely  interesting. — The  occurrence^  which 


SPEAKER,  317 

relate  to  it,  and  have  passed  under  the  knowledge  of  the 
Executive^  will  be  exhibited  to  Congress  in  a  subsequent 
communication. 

When  we  contemplate  the  war  on  our  frontiers,  it  ma)" 
be  truly  affirmed  that  every  reasonable  effort  has  been  made 
to  adjust  the  causes  of  dissension  with  the  Indians,  north 
of  the  Ohio.  The  instructions  given  to  the  commission- 
ers evince  a  moderation  and  equity,  proceeding  from  a  sin- 
cere love  of  peace,  and  a  liberality  having  no  restriction 
but  the  essential  interests  and  dignity  of  the  United  States, 
The  attempt,  however,  of  an  amicable  negociation  having 
been  frustrated,  the  troops  have  marched  to  act  offensive- 
ly. Although  the  proposed  treaty  did  not  arrest  the  pro- 
gress of  military  preparation,  it  is  doubtful,  how  far  the 
advance  of  the  season,  before  good  faith  justified  active 
movements,  may  retard  them  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year.  From  the  papers  and  intelligence  which  relate  to 
this  important  subject,  you  will  determine,  whether  the 
deficiency  in  the  number  of  troops,  granted  by  law,  shall 
be  compensated  by  succours  of  militia  j  or  additional  en- 
couragements shall  be  proposed  to  recruits.  An  anxiety 
has  been  also  demonstrated  by  the  Executive,  for  peace 
with  the  Creeks  and  the  Cherokees.  The  former  have  beea 
relieved  with  corn  and  with  cloathing,  and  offensive  mea- 
sures against  them  prohibited,  during  the  recess  of  Coi^- 
gress.  To  satisfy  the  complaints  of  the  latter,  prosecu- 
tions have  been  instituted  for  the  violences  committed  up- 
on them.  But  the  papers  which  v/iil  be  delivered  to  you, 
disclose  the  critical  footing  on  which  we  stand  in  regard 
to  both  those  tribes,  and  it  is  v/ith  Congress  to  pronouncs 
what  shall  be  done. 

After  they  shall  have  provided  for  the  present  enr^er- 
gcncvj  it  will  merit  their  most  serious  labours,  to  render 
tranquility  Vv'ith  thti  savages,  permanent,  by  creating  ties 
of  interest.  Next  to  a  rigorous  execution  of  justice  on  the 
violators  of  peace,  the  establishment  of  commerce  with  the 
Indian  nations  in  behalf  of  the  United  States,  is  most  }\kc- 
ly  to  conciliiAte  their  attachment.  But  it  ought  to  be  con- 
ducted without  fraud,  without  extortion,  v/ith  constant  and 
plentiful  supplies,  with  a  ready  market  for  the  commodi= 
ties  of  the  Indians,  and  .a  stated  price  for  what  they  give 
in  payment^  and  receive .  in  exchange^  Individuals  vs^i^'IL 
E  £  2 


318  AMERICAN 

not  pursue  such  a  traffic,  unless  they  be  allured  by  the 
hope  of  profit  j  but  it  will  be  enough  for  the  United  States 
to  be  reimbursed  only.  Should  this  recommendation  ac- 
cord with  the  opinion  of  Congress,  they  will  recollect,  that 
It  cannot  be  accomplished  by  any  means  yet  in  the  hands 
of  the  Executive. 


President  Washingtori* s  Address  to  the  People  of  the  United 
States^  announcing  his  intention  of  retiring  from  Public 
Service, 

Friends  and  Fellow  Citizens. 

The  period  for  a  new  election  of  a  citizen  to  adminis- 
ter the  executive  government  of  the  United  States,  being 
not  far  distant,  and  the  time  actually  arrived,  when  your 
thoughts  must  be  employed  in  designating  the  person,  who 
is  to  be  clothed  with  that  important  trust,  it  appears  to 
me  proper,  especially  as  it  may  conduce  to  a  more  distinct 
expression  of  the  public  voice,  that  I  should  now  apprise 
you  of  the  resolution  I  have  formed,  to  decline  being  con- 
sidered among  the  number  of  those,  out  of  whom  a  choice 
is  to  be  made, 

I  beg  you,  at  the  same  time,  to  do  me  the  justice  to  be 
assured,  that  this  resolution  has  not  been  taken,  without 
a  strict  regard  to  all  the  considerations  appertaining  to  the 
relation,  which  binds  a  dutiful  citizen  to  his  country  ; 
and  that,  in  withdrawing  the  tender  of  service  which  si- 
lence in  my  situation  might  imply,  1  am  influenced  by  no 
diminution  of  zeal  for  your  future  interest ;  no  deficiency 
of  grateful  respect  for  your  past  kindness ;  but  am  sup- 
ported by  a  full  conviction  that  the  step  is  compatible  with 
both. 

The  acceptance  of,  and  continuance  hitherto  in  the  of- 
fice to  which  your  suffrages  have  twice  called  me,  have 
been  «  uniform  sacrifice  of  inclination  to  the  opinion  of 
duty,  and  to  a  deference  for  what  appeared  to  be  your  de- 
sire. I  constantly  hoped,  that  it  would  have  been  much 
earlier  in  my  power,  consistently  with  motives,  which  I 
v/as  not  at  liberty  to  disregard,  to  return  to  that  retirement, 
from  which  I  had  been  reluctantly  drawn.  The  strength 
of  my  inclination  to  do  this,  previous  to  the  last  electionj 


SPEAKER.  31^ 

had  even  led  to  the  preparation  of  an  address  to  declare 
it  to  you ;  but  mature  reflection  on  the  then  perplexed  and 
critical  posture  of  our  affairs  with  foreign  nations,  and  the 
unanimous  advice  of  persons  entitled  to  my  confidence,  im- 
pelled me  to  abandon  the  idea. 

I  rejoice,  that  the  state  of  your  concerns,  external  as 
well  as  internal,  no  longer  renders  the  pursuits  of  inclina- 
tion incompatible  with  the  sentiment  of  duty,  or  proprie- 
ty ;  and  am  persuaded  whatever  partiality  may  be  retain- 
ed for  my  services,  that  in  the  present  circumstances  of 
our  country,  you  will  not  disapprove  my  determination  to 
retire. 

The  impressions  with  which  I  first  undertook  the  ardu- 
ous trust,  were  explained  on  the  proper  occasion.  In  the 
discharge  of  this  trust,  I  will  only  say,  that  I  have  with  good 
intentions,  contributed  towards  the  organization  and  admi- 
nistration of  the  government,  the  best  exertions  of  which 
a  very  fallible  judgment  was  capable.  Not  unconscious,  in 
the  outset,  of  the  inferiority  of  my  qualifications,  experi- 
ence in  my  own  eyes,  perhaps  still  more  in  the  eyes  of  o- 
thers,  has  strengthened  the  motives  to  diffidence  of  my- 
self ;  and  every  day  the  increasing  weight  of  years  admo- 
nishes me  more  and  more,  that  the  shade  of  retirement  is 
as  necessary  to  me  as  it  will  be  welcome.  Satisfied  that  i£ 
any  circumstances  have  given  peculiar  value  to  my  ser- 
vices they  were  temporary,  I  have  the  consolation  to  be- 
lieve, that  while  choice  and  prudence  invite  me  to  quit  the 
political  scene,  patriotism  does  not  forbid  it. 

In  looking  forward  to  the  moment,  which  is  intended 
to  terminate  the  career  of  my  public  life,  my  feelings  do 
not  permit  me  to  suspend  the  deep  acknowledgment  of 
that  debt  of  gratitude  which  I  owe  to  my  beloved  country, 
for  the  many  honors  it  has  conferred  upon  me ;  still  more 
for  the  steadfast  confidence  with  which  it  has  supported 
me ;  and  for  the  opportunities  I  have  thence  enjoyed  of 
manifesting  my  inviolable  attachment,  by  services  faithful 
and  persevering,  though  in  usefulness  unequal  to  my  zeal. 
If  benefits  have  resulted  to  our  country  from  these  ser- 
vices, let  it  always  be  remembered  to  your  praise,  as  an  in- 
structive example  in  our  annals,  that  under  circumstances 
in  which  the  passions,  agitated  in  every  direction,  were  li- 
able to  mislead,  amidst  appearances  sometimes  dubious,— 


320  AMERICAN 

vicissitudes  of  fortune  often  discouraging, — in  situations 
in  which  not  unfrequently  want  of  success  has  countenanc- 
ed the  spirit  of  criticism — the  constancy  of  your  support 
was  the  essential  prop  of  the  efforts,  and  a  guarantee  of 
the  plans  by  which  they  were  effected. — Profoundly  pene- 
trated with  this  idea,  I  shall  carry  it  with  me  to  my  grave,  as 
a  strong  incitement  to  unceasing  prayers  that  Heaven  may 
continue  to  you  the  choicest  tokens  of  its  beneficence — 
that  your  union  and  brotherly  affection  may  be  perpetual — 
that  the  free  constitution,  which  is  the  work  of  your  hands, 
may  be  sacredly  maintained — that  its  administration  in 
every  department  may  be  stamped  with  wisdom  and  vir- 
tue— that,  in  fine,  the  happiness  of  the  people  of  these  States 
under  the  auspices  of  liberty,  may  be  made  complete,  by  so 
careful  a  preservation  and  so  prudent  a  use  of  this  bless- 
ing as  will  acquire  to  them  the  glory  of  recommending  it 
to  the  applause,  the  affection  and  adoption  of  every  nation 
which  is  yet  a  stranger  to  it. 

Here,  perhaps,  I  ought  to  stop.  But  a  solicitude  for 
your  welfare,  which,  cannot  end  but  with  my  life,  and  the 
apprehension  of  danger,  natural  to  that  solicitude,  urge  me 
on  an  occasion  like  the  present,  to  offer  to  your  solemn 
contemplation,  and  to  recommend  to  your  frequent  re- 
view, some  sentiments,  which  are  the  result  of  much  re- 
flection, of  no  inconsiderable  observation,  and  which  ap- 
pear to  me  all-importani  to  the  permanency  of  your  felici- 
ty as  a  people.  These  will  be  offered  to  you  with  the  more 
freedom,  as  you  can  only  see  in  them  the  disinterested 
warnings  of  a  parting  friend,  who  can  possibly  have  no 
personal  motive  to  bias  his  council*  Nor  can  I  forget,  as 
an  encouragement  to  it,  your  indulgent  reception  of  my 
sentiments  on  a  former  and  not  dissimilar  occasion. 

Interwoven  as  is  the  iove  of  liberty  v.'ith  every  ligament 
of  your  hearts,  no  recommendation  of  mine  is  necessary 
to  fortify  or  confirm  the  attachment. 

The  unity  of  government  which  constitutes  you  one  peo- 
ple is  also  now  dear  to  you.  It  is  justly  so  ;  for  it  is  a 
main  pillar  in  ihe  edifice  of  your  real  independence,  the 
support  of  your  tranquillity  at  home,  your  peace  abroad  j 
of  your  safety;  of  your  prosperity;  of  that  very  liberty 
which  you  so  highly  prize.  But  as  it  is  easy  to  foresee, 
that  from  different  causes  and  from  different  quarters^ 


SPEAKER.  321 

much  pains  will  be  taken,  many  artifices  employed  to  weak- 
en in  your  minds  the  conviction  of  this  truth  ;  as  this  is  the 
point  in  your  political  fortress  against  which  the  batteries 
of  iniernal  and  external  enemies  will  be  most  constantly 
and  actively  (though  often  covertly  and  insidiously)  direct- 
ed, it  is  of  infinite  moment,  that  you  should  property  esti- 
mate the  immense  value  of  your  national  union  to  your 
collective  and  individual  happiness  ;  that  you  should  che- 
rish a  cordial,  habitual  and  immovable  attachment  to  it; 
accustoming  yourselves  to  think  and  speak  of  it  as  the  pal- 
ladium of  your  political  safety  and  prosperity  ;  watching 
for  its  preservation  with  jealous  anxiety  ;  discountenancing 
whatever  may  suggest  even  a  suspicion  that  it  can  in  any 
event  be  abandoned ;  and  indignantly  frowning  upon  the 
first  dawning  of  every  attempt  to  alienate  any  portion  of 
our  country  from  the  rest,  or  to  enfeeble  the  sacred  ties 
which  now  link  together  the  various  parts. 

For  this  you  have  every  inducement  of  sympathy  and 
interest.  Citizens  by  birth  or  choice,  of  a  common  country, 
that  country  has  a  right  to  concentrate  your  affections. 
The  name  of  American,  which  belongs  to  you,  in  your  na- 
tional capacity,  mj»st  always  exalt  the  just  pride  of  patriot- 
ism, more  than  any  appellation  derived  from  local  discri- 
minations. With  slight  shades  of  difference,  you  have  the 
same  religion,  manners,  habits  and  political  principles.  You 
have  in  a  common  cause  fought  and  triumphed  together ; 
the  independence  and  liberty  you  possess  are  the  work  of 
joint  councils,  and  joint  efforts,  of  common  danger,  suffer- 
ings and  successes. 

But  these  considerations,  however  powerfully  they  ad- 
dress themselves  to  your  sensibility,  are  greatly  outweigh- 
ed by  those  which  apply  more  immediately  to  your  inte- 
rest.— Here  every  portion  of  our  country  finds  the  most 
commanding  motives  for  carefully  guarding  and  preserving 
the  union  of  the  whole. 

The  norths  in  an  unrestrained  intercourse  with  the 
souths  protected  by  the  equal  laws  of  a  common  govern- 
ment, finds  in  the  productions  of  the  latter,  great  additional 
resources  of  maritime  and  commercial  enterprise  and  pre- 
cious materials  of  manufacturing  industry. — The  south  in 
the  same  intercourse,  benefitting  by  the  agency  of  the  north^ 
sees  its  agriculture  grow  and  its  commerce  expand.  Tprn- 


a^2  AMERICAN 

ing  partly  into  its  own  channels  the  seamen  of  the  norths 
it  finds  its  particular  ciavigation  invigorated ;  and  while  it 
contributes,  in  different  ways,  to  nourish  and  increase  the 
general  mass  of  the  national  narigation,  it  looks  forward  to 
the  protection  of  a  maritime  strength,  to  which  itself  is  un- 
equally adapted. — The  east,  in  alike  intercourse  with  the 
west,  already  finds,  and  in  the  progressive  improvement  of 
interior  communications  by  land  and  water,  will  more  and 
more  find  a  valuable  vent  for  the  commodities  which  it 
brings  from  abroad,  or  manufactures  at  home. — The  west 
derives  from  the  east,  supplies  requisite  to  its  growth  and 
comfort — and  what  is  perhaps  of  still  greater  consequence, 
it  must  of  necessity  owe  the  secure  enjoyment  of  indis- 
pensable outlets  for  its  own  productions  to  the  weight,  in- 
fluence, and  the  future  maritime  strength  of  the  Atlantic 
side  of  the  union,  directed  by  an  indissoluble  community 
of  interest  as  one  nation, — Any  other  tenure  by  which  the 
west  can  hold  this  essential  advantage,  whether  derived 
from  its  own  separate  strength,  or  from  an  apostate  and  un- 
natural connection  with  any  foreign  power,  must  be  intrin- 
sically precarious. 

While  then  every  part  of  pur  country  thus  feels  an  im- 
mediate and  particular  interest  in  union,  all  the  parts  com- 
bined cannot  fail  to  find  in  the  united  mass  of  means  and 
efforts,  greater  strength,  greater  resource,  proportionably 
greater  security  from  external  danger,  a  less  frequent  in- 
terruption of  their  peace  by  foreign  nations  ; — and  what  is 
of  inestimable  value,  they  must  derive  from  union  an  ex- 
emption from  those  broils  and  wars  between  themselves^ 
which  so  frequently  afflict  neighbouring  countries,  not  tied 
together  by  the  same  government ;  which  their  own  rival- 
ships  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  produce,  but  which  oppo- 
site foreign  alliances,  attachments  and  intrigues  would 
stimulate  and  embitter. — Hence  likewise  they  will  avoid 
the  necessity  of  those  overgrown  military  establishments, 
which  under  any  form  of  government  arc  inauspicious  to 
liberty,  imd  which  are  to  be  regarded  as  particularly  hostile 
to  republican  liberty;  in  this  sense  it  is,  that  your  union 
ought  to  be  considered  as  a  main  prop  of  your  liberty,  and 
that  che  love  ol  the  one  ought  to  endear  to  you  the  preser- 
\  ation  of  the  other* 


SPEAKER.  325 

These  considerations  speak  a  persuasive  language  to 
every  reflecting  and  virtuous  mind,  and  exhibit  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  union  as  a  primary  object  of  patriotic 
desire. — Is  there  a  doubt,  whether  a  common  government 
can  embrace  so  large  a  sphere  ? — Let  experience  solve  it. 
To  listen  to  mere  speculation  in  such  a  case  were  criminal. 
We  are  authorised  to  hope  that  a  proper  organization  of  the 
whole,  with  the  auxiliary  agency  of  governments  for  the 
respective  subdivisions,  will  afford  a  happy  issue  to  the  ex- 
periment. It  is  well  worth  a  fair  and  full  experiment. 
With  such  powerful  and  obvious  motives  to  union,  affect- 
ing all  parts  of  our  country,  while  experience  shall  not 
have  demonstrated  its  impracticability,  there  will  always 
be  reason  to  distrust  the  patriotism  of  those,  who  in  any 
quarter  may  endeavour  to  weaken  its  bands. 

In  contemplating  the  causes  which  may  disturb  our  union, 
it  occurs  as  matter  of  serious  concern,  that  any  ground 
should  have  been  furnished  for  characterizing  parties  by 
geographical  discriminations — northern  and  souther?! — at' 
lant'ic  aud  western;  whence  designing  men  may  endeavour 
to  excite  a  belief  that  there  is  a  real  difference  of  local  in- 
terests and  views.  One  of  the  expedients  of  party  to  ac- 
quire influence,  within  particular  districts,  is  to  misrepre- 
sent the  opinions  and  ai  rss  of  other  districts.  You  cannot 
shield  yourselves  too  much  against  the  jealousies  and 
heart  burnings  which  spring  from  these  misrepresenta- 
tions ;  they  tend  to  render  alien  to  each  other  those  who 
ought  to  be  bound  together  by  fraternal  affection.  The  in- 
habitants of  our  western  country  have  lately  had  a  useful 
lesson  on  this  head  :  they  have  seen,  in  the  negociation  by 
the  executive,  and  in  the  unanimous  ratification  by  the  Se- 
nate, of  the  treaty  with  Spain,  and  in  the  universal  satis- 
faction at  that  event,  throughout  the  United  States,  a  de- 
cisive proof  how  unfounded  were  the  suspicions  propogat- 
ed  among  them  of  the  policy  in  the  general  government, 
and  in  the  Atlantic  states,  unfriendly  to  their  interests  in 
regard  of  the  Mississippi :  they  have  been  witnesses  to  the 
formation  of  two  treaties,  that  with  Great  Britain  and  that 
with  Spain,  which  secure  to  them  every  thing  they  could 
desire,  in  respect  to  our  foreign  relations  j  towards  con- 
firm sing  their  prosperity.  Will  it  not  be  their  wisdom  to 
rely  for  the  preservation  of  these  advantages  on  the  unioa 


324  AMERICAN 

by  which  they  were  procured  ?  Will  they  not  henceforth 
be  deaf  to  those  advisers,  if  such  there  are,  who  would 
sever  them  from  their  brethren,  and  connect  them  with 
aliens  ? 

To  the  efficacy  and  permanency  of  your  union,  a  go- 
vernment for  the  whole  is  indispensable.  No  alliances, 
however  strict,  between  the  parts  can  be  an  adequate  sub- 
stitute ;  they  must  inevitably  experience  the  infractions 
and  interruptions  which  all  alliances  in  all  times  have  ex- 
perienced. Sensible  of  this  momentous  truth,  you  have 
improved  upon  your  first  essay,  by  the  adoption  of  a  con- 
stitution of  government,  better  calculated  than  your  for- 
mer, for  an  intimate  union,  and  for  the  efficacious  manage- 
ment of  your  common  concerns.  This  government,  the 
offspring  of  your  own  choice,  uninfluenced  and  unawed  ; 
adopted  upon  full  investigation  and  mature  deliberation  ; 
completely  free  in  its  principles  ;  in  the  distribution  of  its 
powers  uniting  security  with  energy,  and  containing  with- 
in itself  a  provision  for  its  own  amendments,  has  a  just 
claim  to  your  confidence  and  your  support.  Respect  for 
its  authority,  compliance  with  its  laws,  acquiescence  in  its 
measures,  are  duties  enjoined  by  the  fundamental  maxims 
of  true  liberty.  The  basis  of  our  political  systems  is  the 
right  of  the  people  to  make  and  to  alter  their  constitutions 
pf  government, — But  the  constitution  which  at  any  time 
exists,  until  changed  by  an  explicit  and  authentic  act  of  the 
•whole  people,  is  sacredly  obligatory  upon  all.  The  very 
idea  of  the  power  and  the  right  of  the  people  to  establish 
a  government,  presupposes  the  duty  of  every  individual  to 
obey  the  established  government. 

All  obstructions  to  the  execution  of  the  laws,  all  com- 
binations and  associations,  under  whatever  plausible  cha- 
racter, with  the  real  design  to  direct,  controul,  counteract, 
or  awe  the  regular  deliberations  and  actions  of  the  consti- 
tuted authorities,  are  destructive  of  this  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, and  of  fatal  tendency.  They  serve  to  organize  fac- 
tion ;  to  give  it  an  artificial  and  extraordinary  force  ;  to 
put  in  the  place  of  the  delegated  will  of  the  nation,  the 
will  of  a  party,  often  a  small,  but  artful  and  enterprising 
minority  of  the  community  ;  and  according  to  the  alter- 
nate triumphs  of  different  parties,  to  make  the  public  ad- 
ministration the  mirror  of  the  ill-concerted  and  incongru- 


SPEAKER.  325 

ous  projects  of  faction,  rather  than  the  organ  of  consistent 
and  wholesome  plans,  digested  by  common  councils,  and 
modified  by  mutual  interests. 

However  combinations  or  associations  of  the  above 
description  may  now  and  then  answer  popular  ends,  they 
are  likely,  in  the  course  of  time  and  things,  to  become  po- 
tent engines,  by  which  cunning,  ambitious,  and  unprinci- 
pled men,  will  be  enabled  to  subvert  the  power  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  to  usurp  for  themselves  the  reigns  of  government ; 
destroying  afterwards  the  very  engines  which  have  lifted 
them  to  unjust  dominion. 

Towards  the  preservation  of  your  government,  and  the 
permanency  of  your  present  happy  state,  it  is  requisite 
not  only  that  you  steadily  discountenance  irregular  oppo- 
sitions to  its  acknowledged  authority,  but  also  that  you  re- 
sist with  care  the  spirit  of  innovation  upon  its  prmciples, 
however  specious  the  pretexts.  One  method  of  assault 
may  be  to  effect  in  the  forms  of  the  constitution  altera- 
tions which  will  impair  the  energy  of  the  system,  and  thus 
to  undermine  what  cannot  be  directly  overthrown.  In  all 
the  changes  to  which  you  may  be  invited,  remember  that 
time  and  habit  are  at  least  as  necessary  to  fix  the  true  cha- 
racter of  governments,  as  of  other  human  institutions 

that  experience  is  the  surest  standard,  by  which  to  test  the 
real  tendency  of  the  existing  constitution  of  a  country— 
that  facility  in  changes  upon  the  credit  of  mere  hypothesis 
and  opinion,  exposes  to  perpetual  change  from  the  endless 
variety  of  hypothesis  and  opinion :  and  remember,  espe- 
cially, that  from  the  efficient  management  of  your  common 
interests,  in  a  country  so  extensive  as  ours,  a  government 
of  as  much  vigour  as  is  consistent  with  the  perfect  secu- 
rity of  liberty,  is  iiadispensable.  Liberty  itself  will  find 
in  such  a  government,  with  powers  properly  distributed 
and  adjusted,  its  surest  guardian.  It  is,  indeed,  little  else 
than  a  name,  where  the  government  is  too  feeble  to  with- 
stand the  enterprises  of  faction,  to  confine  each  member 
of  the  society  within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  laws, 
and  to  maintain  all  in  the  secure  and  tranquil  enjoyment 
of  the  rights  of  persons  and  property. 

1  have  already  intimated  to  you  the  danger  of  parties 
in  the  state,  with  particular  reference  to  the  founding  of 
them  on  geographical  discriminations.     Let  me  now  take 

Ff 


32^6  AMERICAN 

a  more  comprehensive  view,  and  warn  you  in  the  most 
soltmn  manner,  against  the  baneful  effects  of  the  spirit  of 
party,  generally. 

This  spirit,  unfortunately,  is  inseparable  from  our  na- 
ture, having  its  root  in  the  strongest  passions  of  the  hu- 
man mind.  It  exists  under  different  shapes  in  all  govern- 
ments,* more  or  less  stifled,  controlled,  or  repressed  ;  but 
in  those  of  the  popular  form,  it  is  seen  in  its  greatest  rank- 
ness,  and  is  truly  their  worst  enemy. 

The  alternate  domination  of  one  faction  over  another, 
sharpened  by  the  spirit  of  revenge,  natural  to  party  dis- 
sention,  which  in  different  ages  and  countries  has  perpe- 
trated the  most  horrid  enormities,  is  itself  a  frightful  des- 
potism. But  this  leads  at  length  to  a  more  formal  and 
permanent  despotism.  The  disorders  and  miseries  which 
result,  gradually  incline  the  minds  of  men  to  seek  security 
and  repose  in  the  absolute  pov/er  of  an  individual ;  and 
sooner  or  later  the  chief  of  some  prevailing  faction,  more 
able  or  more  fortunate  than  his  competitors,  turns  this  dis- 
position to  the  purposes  of  his  own  elevation,  on  the  ruins 
of  public  liberty. 

Without  looking  forward  to  an  extremity  of  this  kind, 
(which  nevertheless  ought  not  to  be  entirely  out  of  sight), 
the  common  and  continual  mischiefs  of  the  spirit  of  party, 
are  sufficient  to  make  it  the  interest  and  duty  of  a  wise 
people  to  discourage  and  restrain  it. 

It  serves  always  to  distract  the  public  councils,  and  en- 
feeble the  public  administration.  It  agitates  the  commu- 
nity with  ill  founded  jealousies  and  false  alarms;  kindles 
the  animosity  of  one  part  against  another ;  foments  occa- 
sionally riot  and  insurrection.  It  opens  the  door  to  foreign 
influence  and  corruption,  which  find  a  facilitated  access  to 
the  government  itself,  through  the  channels  of  party  pas- 
sions. Thus  the  policy  and  the  w;ll  of  one  country,  are 
subjected  to  the  policy  and  will  of  another. 

There  is  an  opinion  that  parties  in  fr^e  countries  are  use- 
ful checks  upon  the  administration  of  the  government,  and 
serve  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  liberty.  This,  withm  cer- 
tain limits,  is  probably  true  ;  and  in  governments  of  a 
monarchical  cast,  patriotism  may  look  with  indulgence,  if 
not  with  favour,  upon  the  spirit  of  party.  But  in  those  of 
the  popular  character,  in  governments  purely  elective,  it  is 


SPEAKER.  32^ 

a  spirit  not  to  be  encouraged.  From  their  natural  tenden- 
cy, it  is  certain  there  will  always  be  enough  of  that  spirit 
for  every  salutary  purpose.  And  there  being  constant 
danger  of  excess,  the  effort  ought  to  be,  by  force  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  to  mitigate  and  assuage  it.  A  fire  not  to  be 
quenched,  it  demands  an  uniform  vigilance  to  prevent  its 
bursting  into  a  flame,  lest,  instead  of  warming,  it  should 
consume. 

It  is  important,  likewise,  that  the  habits  of  thinking,  in 
a  free  country,  should  inspire  caution  in  those  intrusted 
with  its  administration,  to  confine  themselves  within  their 
respective  constitutional  spheres,  avoiding  in  the  exercise 
of  the  powers  of  one  department  to  encroach  upon  ano- 
ther.— The  spirit  of  encroachment  tends  to  consolidate 
the  powers  of  all  the  departm(;nts  in  one,  and  thus  to  cre- 
ate, whatever  the  form  of  government,  a  real  despotism. 
A  just  estimate  of  that  love  of  power,  and  proneness  to 
abuse  it,  which  predominates  in  the  human  heart,  is  suffi- 
cient to  satisfy  us  of  the  truth  of  this  position.  The  ne- 
cessity of  reciprocal  checks  in  the  exercise  of  political 
power,  by  dividing  and  distributing  it  into  different  de- 
positories, and  constituting  each  the  guardian  of  the  pub- 
lic weal  against  invasions  by  the  others,  has  been  evinced 
by  experiments  ancient  and  modern  ;  some  of  them  in  our 
country  and  under  our  ov;n  eyes.  To  preserve  them  must 
be  as  necessary  as  to  institute  them.  If,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  people,  the  distribution  or  modification  of  the  consti- 
tutional powers,  be  in  any  particular  wrong,  let  it  be  cor- 
rected by  an  amendment  m  the  v/ay  which  the  constitution 
designates.  Bat  let  there  be  no  change  by  usurpation ; 
for  though  this,  in  one  instance,  may  be  th-  instrument  of 
good,  it  is  the  customary  weapon  by  which  free  govern- 
ments are  destroyed.  The  precedent  must  always  greatly 
overbalance  in  permanent  evil,  any  partial  or  transient  be- 
nefit which  the  use  can  at  any  time  yield. 

Of  all  the  dispositions  and  habits  which  lead  to  political 
prosperity,  religion  and  morality  are  indispensable  sup- 
ports. In  vain  would  that  man  claim  the  tribute  of  pa- 
triotism, who  should  labour  to  subvert  these  great  pillars 
of  human  happiness — these  firmest  props  of  the  duties  of 
men  and  citizens.  The  mere  politician,  equally  with  the 
pious  man,  ought  to  respect  and  to  cherish  them.     A  vo- 


328  AMERICAN 

lume  could  not  trace  all  their  connexions  with  private  and 
public  felicity.  Let  it  simply  be  asked,  where  is  the  se- 
curity for  property,  for  reputation,  for  life,  if  the  sense  of 
religious  obligation  desert  the  oaths,  which  are  the  instru- 
ments of  investigation  in  courts  of  justice  ?  And  let  us 
with  caution  indulge  the  supposition  that  morality  can  be 
maintained  without  religion.  Whatever  may  be  conced- 
ed to  the  influence  of  refined  education  on  minds  of  pe- 
culiar structure,  reason  and  experience  both  forbid  us  to 
expect  that  national  morality  can  prevail  in  exclusion  of 
religious  principles. 

It  is  substantially  true,  that  virtue  or  morality  is  a  ne- 
cessary spring  of  popular  government.  The  rule  indeed 
exttnds  v/ith  more  or  less  force  to  every  species  of  free  go- 
vernment. Who  that  is  a  sincere  friend  to  it  can  look 
v/ith  indifference  upon  attempts  to  shake  the  foundation  of 
the  fabric  ? 

Promote  then,  as  an  object  of  primary  importance,  in- 
stitutions for  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  structure  of  a  government  gives  force  to 
public  opinion,  it  is  essential  that  public  opinion  should  be 
enlightened. 

As  a  very  important  source  of  strength  and  securityj 
cherish  public  credit.  One  method  of  preserving  it  is  to 
use  it  as  sparingly  as  possible,  avoiding  occasions  of  ex- 
pense by  cultivating  peace ;  but  remembering  also,  that 
timely  disbursetiients  to  prepare  for  danger,  frequently 
prevent  much  greater  disbursements  to  repel  it ;  avoiding 
likewise  the  accumulation  of  debt,  not  only  by  shunning 
occasions  of  expense,  but  by  vigorous  exertions  in  time  of 
peace,  to  discharge  the  debts  which  unavoidable  wars  may 
have  occasioned,  not  ungenerously  throwing  upon  posteri- 
ty the  burden  which  we  ourselves  ought  to  bear.  The 
execution  of  these  maxims  belongs  to  your  representa- 
tives ;  but  it  is  necessary  that  public  opinion  should  co- 
operate. To  fecilitate  to  them  the  performance  of  their 
duty,  it  is  essential  that  you  should  practically  bear  in 
mind,  that  towards  the  payment  of  debts  there  must  be 
revenue  ;  that  to  have  revenue  there  must  be  taxes ;  that 
jio  taxes  can  be  devised  which  are  not  more  or  less  incon- 
venient and  unplerisant ;  that  the  intrinsic  embarrassment 
inseparable  from  the  selection  of  the  proper  ©bjects,  (which 


SPEAKER.  329 

IS  always  a  choice  of  difficulties,)  ought  to  be  a  decisive 
motive  for  a  candid  construction  of  the  conduct  of  the  go- 
vernment in  making  it,  and  for  a  spirit  of  acquiescence  in 
the  measures  for  obtaining  revenue  which  the  public  exi- 
gencies may  at  any  time  dictate. 

Observe  good  faith  and  justice  towards  all  nations  ;  cul- 
tivate peace  and  harmony  with  all :  religion  and  morality 
enjoin  this  conduct ;  and  can  it  be  that  good  policy  does 
not  equally  enjoin  it  ?  It  will  be  worthy  of  a  free,  enlight- 
ened, and,  at  no  distant  period,  a  great  nation,  to  give  to 
mankind  the  magnanimous  and  too  novel  example  of  a 
people  always  guided  by  an  exalted  justice  and  benevo- 
lence.— Who  can  doubt  that  in  the  course  of  lime  and 
things  the  fruits  of  such  a  plan  would  richly  repay  any 
temporary  advantages  which  might  be  lost  by  a  steady  ad- 
iierence  to  it  ?  Can  it  be,  that  Providence  has  not  connect- 
ed the  peamanent  felicity  of  a  nation  with  its  virtue  ?  The 
experiment,  at  least,  is  recommended  by  every  sentiment 
which  ennobles  human  nature.  Alas  !  is  it  rendered  im- 
possible by  its  vices  ? 

In  the  execution  of  such  a  plan,  nothing  is  more  essen- 
tial than  that  permanent  inveterate  antipathies  against  par- 
ticular nations,  and  passionate  attachments  for  others, 
should  be  excluded  ;  and  that  in  place  of  them,  just  and 
amicable  feelings  towards  all  should  be  cultivated.  The 
nation  which  indulges  towards  another  an  habitual  hatred, 
or  an  habitual  fondness,  is  in  some  degree  a  slave.  It  is 
a  slave  to  its  animosity  or  to  its  affection,  either  of  which 
is  sufficient  to  lead  it  astray  from  its  duty  and  its  interest. 
—Antipathy  in  one  nation  against  another,  disposes  each 
more  readily  to  offer  insult  and  injury,  to  lay  hold  of  slight 
causes  of  umbrage,  and  to  be  haughty  and  intractable, 
■when  accidental  or  trifling  occasions  of  dispute  occur. 

Hence  frequent  collisions,  obstinate,  envenomed,  and 
bloody  contests.  The  nation,  prompted  by  ill-will  and  re- 
sentment, sometimes  impels  to  war  the  government,  con- 
trary to  the  best  calculations  of  policy.  The  government 
sometimes  participates  in  the  national  propensity,  and  a- 
dopts  through  passion,  what  reason  would  reject ;  at  other 
times,  it  makes  the  animosity  of  the  nation  subservient  to 
projects  of  hostility  instigated  by  pride,  ambitioHj  and  0= 


530  AMERICAN 

ther  sinister  and  pernicious  motives.  The  peace  often, some- 
times perhaps  the  liberty  of  nations,  has  been  the  victim. 

So,  likewise,  a  passionate  attachment  of  one  nation  for 
another,  produces  a  variety  of  evils.  Sympathy  for  the 
favourite  nation,  facilitating  the  illusion  of  an  imaginary 
common  interest  in  cases  where  no  real  common  interest 
exists,  and  infusing  into  one  the  enmities  of  the  other,  be- 
trays the  former  into  a  participation  in  the  quarrels  and 
•wars  of  the  latter,  without  adequate  inducaments  or  justi- 
fication. It  leads  also  to  concessions  to  the  favourite  na- 
tion, of  privileges  denied  to  others,  which  are  apt  doubly 
to  injure  the  nation  making  the  concessions,  by  unneces- 
sarily parting  with  what  ought  to  have  been  retained  ;  and 
by  exciting  jealousy,  ill-will,  and  a  disposition  to  retaliate, 
in  the  parties  from  whom  equal  privileges  are  withheld ; 
and  it  gives  to  ambitious,  corrupted,  or  deluded  citizens, 
(who  devote  themselves  to  the  favourite  nation),  facility 
to  betray,  or  sacrifice  the  interests  of  their  own  country, 
without  odium,  sometimes  even  with  popularity  :  gilding 
with  the  appearances  of  a  virtuous  sense  of  obligation,  a 
cominendable  deference*  for  public  opinion,  or  a  laudable 
zeM  for  public  good,  the  base  or  foolish  compliances  of 
ambition,  corruption,  or  infatuation. 

As  avenues  to  foreign  influence  in  innumerable  ways, 
such  attachments  are  paticularly  alarming  to  the  truly  en- 
lightened and  independent  patriot.  How  many  opportu- 
nities do  they  afford  to  tamper  with  domestic  factions,  to 
pihtcice  the  j.rts  of  seduction,  to  mislead  public  opinion,  to 
iniiuf-nce  or  awe  the  public  councils  !  Such  an  attachment 
ot  i»  small  or  weak,  towards  a  gre^t  and  powerful  nation, 
dooms  the  former  to  be  the  satttllite  of  the  latter. 

Agi'inst  the  insidious  wiles  of  foreign  influence  (I  con- 
jure ycu  to  believe  me,  fellew-ciiizens)  the  jealousy  of  a 
free  r  eople  ought  to  l;>e  constantly  awake  ;  since  history 
and  experience  prove  that  foreign  influence  is  one  of  the 
nit.st  baneful  foes  of  republican  government.  But  that 
^,e.' U'usy  to  be  useful  must  be  impartial,  else  it  becomes  the 
instrument  of  the  very  influence  to  be  avoided,  instead  of 
a  (»t  fence  against  it.— -Excessive  partiality  for  one  foreign 
natiun,  and  excessive  dislike  of  another,  cause  those  whom 
ihey  actuate  to  see  danger  only  oa  one  sid?,  and  serve  tQ> 


SPEAKER.  ^331 

veil  and  even  second  the  arts  of  influence  on  the  other. — 
Real  patriots,  who  may  resist  the  intrigues  of  the  favourite, 
are  liable  to  become  suspected  and  odious  j  while  its  tools 
and  dupes  usurp  the  applause  and  confidence  of  the  people, 
to  surrender  their  interests. 

The  great  rule  of  conduct  for  us,  in  regard  to  foreign 
nations,  is  in  extending  our  commercial  relations,  to  have 
with  them  as  little  political  connexion  as  possible.  So  far 
as  we  have  already  formed  engagements,  let  them  be  ful- 
filled with  perfect  good  faith. — Here  let  us  stop. 

Europe  has  a  set  of  primary  interests,  which  to  us  have 
none,  or  a  very  remote  relation.  Hence  she  must  be  en- 
gaged in  frequent  controversies,  the  causes  of  which  are 
tssentially  foreign  to  our  concerns.  Hence,  therefore,  it 
must  be  unwise  in  us  to  implicate  ourselves,  by  artificial 
ties,  in  the  ordinary  vicissitudes  of  her  politics,  or  the  or- 
dinary combinations  and  collisions  of  her  friendships,  or 
enmities. 

Our  detached  and  distant  situation  invites  and  enables 
us  to  pursue  a  different  course.  If  we  remain  one  people, 
under  an  efficient  government,  the  period  is  not  far  off, 
when  we  may  defy  material  injury  from  external  annoy- 
ance :  when  we  may  take  such  an  attitude  as  will  cause 
the  neutrality,  we  may  at  any  time  resolve  upon,  to  be 
scrupulously  respected  ;  when  belligerent  nations  under 
the  impossibility  of  making  acquisitions  upon  us,  will  not 
lightly  hazard  the  giving  us  provocation  -,  when  we  may 
choose  peace  or  war,  as  our  mterest,  guided  by  justice, 
shall  counsel. 

Why  forego  the  advantages  of  so  peculiar  a  situation  ? 
Why  quit  our  own  to  stand  upon  foreign  ground  ?  Why 
by  interweaving  our  destiny  with  that  of  any  pc)rt  of  Eu- 
rope, entangle  our  peace  and  prosperity  in  the  toils  of  Eu- 
ropean ambition,  rivalship,  interest,  humour  or  caprice  ? 

It  is  our  true  policy  to  steer  clear  of  permanent  alliances 
with  any  portion  of  the  foreign  world  ;  so  far,  1  mean,  as 
we  are  now  at  liberty  to  do  it ;  for  let  me  not  be  understood 
US  capable  of  patronizing  infidelity  to  existing  engagements, 
I  hold  the  maxim  no  less  applicable  to  public  than  to  pri- 
vate afiairs,  that  honesty  is  always  the  best  policy.  I  re- 
peat it  therefore,  let  those  engagements  be  observed  ijQ 


S32  AMERICAN 

their  genuine  sense.  But  in  my  opinion,  it  is  unnecessary 
and  would  be  unwise  to  extend  them. 

Taking  care  always  to  keep  ourselves,  by  suitable  es- 
tablishments, in  a  respectable  defensive  posture,  we  may 
safely  trust  to  temporary  alliances  for  extraordinary  emer- 
gencies. 

Harmony,  and  a  liberal  intercourse  with  all  nations,  are 
recommended  by  policy,  humanity,  and  interest.  But  even 
our  commercial  policy  should  hold  an  equal  and  impartial 
hand ;  neither  seeking  nor  granting  exclusive  favours  or 
preferences:  consulting  the  natural  course  of  things  ;  dif- 
fusing and  diversifying  by  gentle  means  the  streams  of 
commerce,  but  forcing  nothing  ;  establishing,  with  powers 
so  disposed  in  order  to  give  trade  a  stable  course,  to  de- 
fine the  rights  of  our  merchants,  and  to  enable  the  govern- 
ment to  support  them,  conventional  rules  of  intercourse, 
tht:  best  that  present  circnmstances  and  mutual  opinion 
will  permit,  but  temporary,  and  liable  to  be  from  time  to 
time  abandoned  or  varied  as  experience  and  circumstances 
shall  dictate  ;  constantly  keeping  in  view,  that  it  is  folly 
in  one  nation  to  look  for  disinterested  favours  from  ano- 
ther ;  that  it  must  pay  with  a  portion  of  its  independence 
for  whatever  it  may  accept  under  that  character  ;  that  by 
such  acceptance,  it  may  place  itself  in  the  condition  of  hav- 
ing given  equivalents  for  nominal  favours,  and  yet  of  be- 
ing reproached  with  ingratitude  for  not  giving  more. 
There  can  be  no  greater  error  than  to  expect,  or  calculate 
upon  real  favours  from  nation  to  nation.  It  is  an  illusion 
which  experience  must  cure,  which  a  just  pride  ought  to 
discard. 

In  offering  to  you  my  countrymen,  these  councils  of  an 
old  and  affectionate  friend,  I  dare  not  hope  they  will  make 
the  strong  and  lasting  impression  I  could  wish  ;  that  they 
will  controul  the  usual  current  of  the  passions,  or  prevent 
our  nation  from  running  the  course  which  has  hitherto 
marked  the  destiny  of  nations  :  But  if  I  may  even  flatter 
myself,  that  they  may  be  productive  of  some  partial  bene- 
fit, some  occasional  good  ;  that  they  may  nov/  and  then  re- 
cur to  moderate  the  fury  of  party  spirit,  to  warn  against 
the  mischiefs  of  foreign  intrigue  ;  to  guard  3gainst  the  im- 
postures of  pretended  patriotism  ;  this  hope  will  be  a  full 


SPEAKER.  333 

recompense  for  the  solicitude  of  your  welfare,  by  which 
they  have  been  dictated. 

How  far  in  the  discharge  of  my  official  duties,  I  have 
been  guided  by  the  principles  that  have  been  delineated, 
the  public  records  and  other  evidences  of  my  conduct  must 
witness  to  you  and  to  the  world.  To  myself,  the  assurance 
of  my  own  conscience  is,  that  I  have  at  least  believed  my- 
self to  be  guided  by  them. 

In  relation  to  the  still  subsisting  war  in  Europe,  my 
proclamation  of  the  22d  of  April,  1793,  is  the  index  to 
my  plan.  Sanctioned  by  your  approving  voice,  and  by  that 
of  your  representatives  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  the 
spirit  of  that  measure  has  continually  governed  me  ;  un- 
influenced by  any  attempts  to  deter  or  divert  me  from  it. 

After  deliberate  examination,  with  the  aid  of  the  best 
lights  I  could  obtain,  I  was  well  satisfied  that  our  country, 
under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  had  a  right  to  take, 
and  was  bound  in  duty  and  interest  to  take,  a  neutral  po- 
sition. Having  taken  it,  I  determined,  as  far  as  should  de- 
pend upon  me,  to  maintain  it  with  moderation,  persever- 
ance, and  firmness. 

The  considerations  which  respect  the  right  to  hold  this 
conduct,  it  is  not  necessary  on  this  occasion  to  detail.  I 
will  only  observe,  that  according  to  my  understanding  of 
the  matter,  that  right,  so  far  from  being  denied  by  any  of 
the  belligerent  powers,  has  been  virtually  admitted  by  all. 

The  duty  of  holding  a  neutral  conduct  may  be  inferred, 
without  anything  more,  from  the  obligation  which  justice 
and  humanity  impose  on  every  nation,  in  cases  in  which  it 
is  free  to  act,  to  maintain  inviolate  the  relations  of  peace 
and  amity  towards  other  nations. 

The  inducements  of  interest  for  observing  that  conduct 
will  best  be  referred  to  your  own  reflections  and  experi- 
ence. With  me,  a  predominant  motive  has  been  to  en- 
deavour to  gain  time  to  our  country  to  settle  and  mature 
its  yet  recent  institutions,  and  to  progress,  without  inter- 
ruption to  that  degree  of  strength  and  consistency,  which 
is  necessary  to  give  it,  humanly  speaking,  the  command  of 
its  own  fortunes. 

Though  in  reviewing  the  incidents  of  my  administration, 
I  am  unconscious  of  intentional  error ;  1  am  nevertheless 
too  sensible  of  my  defects  not  to  think  it  probable  that  I 


334  AMERICAN 

may  have  committed  many  errors.  Whatever  they  may  be, 
I  fervently  beseech  the  Almighty  to  avert  or  mitigate  the 
evils  to  which  they  may  tend.  I  shall  also  carry  with  me 
the  hope  that  my  country  will  never  cease  to  view  them 
with  indulgence  ;  and  that  after  forty-five  years  of  my  life 
dedicated  to  its  service,  with  an  upright  zeal,  the  faults  of 
incompetent  abilities  will  be  consigned  to  oblivion,  as  my- 
self must  soon  be  to  the  mansions  of  rest. 

Relying  on  its  kindness  in  this  as  in  other  things,  and 
actuated  by  that  fervent  love  towards  it,  which  is  so  natu- 
ral to  a  man  who  views  it  in  the  native  soil  of  himself  and 
his  progenitors  for  several  generations ;  I  anticipate  with 
pleasing  expectation  that  retreat,  in  which  I  promise  my- 
self to  realize,  without  alloy,  the  sweet  enjoyment  of  par- 
taking, in  the  midst  of  my  fellow-citizens,  the  benign  in- 
fluence of  good  laws  under  a  free  government — the  ever 
favourite  object  of  my  heart,  and  the  happy  reward  as  I 
trust,  of  our  mutual  cares,  labours,  and  dangers. 

United  States^  Septe7nber  17th,  1796. 


General^  noxv  Chief  Justice  MarshaWs  Speech  in  Congress, 
announcing  the  death  of  Washington,  December,  1799. 

*'  Mr.  Speaker — The  melancholy  event  which  was  yes- 
terday announced  with  doubt,  has  been  rendered  but  too 
certain.  Our  Washington  is  no  more.  The  hero,  the  pa- 
triot, and  the  sage  of  America  ;  the  man  on  whom  in  times 
of  danger  every  eye  was  turned,  and  all  hopes  were  placed, 
lives  now  only  in  his  own  great  actions,  and  in  the  hearts 
of  an  afTectionate  and  afflicted  people. 

If,  sir,  it  had  even  not  been  usual  openly  to  testify  re- 
spect for  the  memory  of  those  whom  Heaven  has  select- 
ed as  its  instruments  for  dispensing  good  to  man,  yet  such 
has  been  the  uncommon  worth,  and  such  the  extraordinary 
incidents  which  have  marked  the  life  of  him  whose  loss 
we  all  deplore,  that  the  whole  American  nation,  impelled 
by  the  same  feelings,  would  call  with  one  voice  for  a  pub- 
lic manifestation  of  that  sorrow,  which  is  so  deep  and  so 
universal. 

iviore  than  any  other  individual,  and  as  much  as  to  one 
individual  was  possible,  has  he  contributed  to  found  this 


SPEAKER.  33^ 

«ur  wide  spreading  empire,  and  to  give  to  the  western  world, 
independence  and  freedom. 

Having  effected  the  great  object  for  which  he  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  our  armies,  we  have  seen  him  convert  the 
sword  into  the  ploughshare,  and  sink  the  soldier  into  the 
citizen. 

When  the  debility  of  our  federal  system  had  become 
manifest,  and  the  bonds  which  connected  this  vast  conti- 
nent were  dissolving,  we  have  seen  him  the  chief  of  those 
patriots  who  formed  for  us  a  constitution,  which,  by  pre- 
ser^ing  the  union,  will,  I  trust,  substantiate  and  perpetu- 
ate those  blessings  which  our  revolution  had  promised  to 
bestow. 

In  obedience  to  the  general  voice  of  his  country,  calling 
him  to  preside  over  a  great  people,  we  have  seen  him  once 
more  quit  the  retirement  he  loved,  and  in  a  season  more 
stormy  and  tempestuous  than  war  itself,  with  calm  and 
wise  determination  pursue  the  true  interests  of  the  nation, 
and  contribute  more  than  any  other  could  contribute,  to 
the  establishment  of  that  system  of  policy  which  will,  I 
trust,  yet  preserve  our  peace,  our  honor,  and  our  inde- 
pendence. 

Having  been  twice  unanimously  chosen  the  chief  ma- 
gistrate of  a  free  people,  we  have  seen  him,  at  a  time 
when  his  re-election  with  universal  suffrage  could  not  be 
doubted,  afford  to  the  world  a  rare  instance  of  moderation, 
by  withdrawing  from  his  station  to  the  peaceful  walks  of 
private  life. 

However  the  public  confidence  may  change,  and  the 
public  affections  fluctuate  with  respect  to  others,  with  re- 
spect to  him  they  have,  in  war  and  in  peace,  in  public  and 
in  private  life,  been  as  steady  as  his  own  firm  mind,  and 
as  constant  as  his  own  exalted  virtues. 

Let  us  then,  Mr.  Speaker,  pay  the  last  tribute  of  re- 
spect and  affection  to  our  departed  friend.  Let  thi-  grand 
council  of  the  nation  display  those  sentiments  which  the 
nation  feels.  For  this  purpose  I  hold  in  my  hand  some 
resolutions  which  1  take  the  liberty  of  offering  to  the 
House. 

Rc8olved^  That  this  house  will  wait  on  the  president,  in 
condolence  of  this  mournful  event. 


336  AMERICAN 

Resolved^  That  the  speaker's  chair  be  shrouded  with 
black,  and  that  the  members  and  officers  of  the  house  wear 
black  during  the  session. 

Resolved^  That  a  committee,  in  conjunction  with  one 
from  the  senate,  be  appointed  to  consider  on  the  most 
suitable  manner  of  paying  honor  to  the  memory  of  the 
man,  first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of 
his  fellow-citizens." 


Extract  from  Major  General  Lee's  funeral  Oration  on  the 
Death  of  General  Washington^  delivered  before  both  Hou- 
ses^ at  the  request  of  Congress^  December  26^/i,  1799. 

In  obedience  to  your  will,  I  rise  your  humble  organ, 
with  the  hope  of  executing  a  part  of  the  system  of  pub- 
lic mourning,  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  adopt,  com- 
memorative of  the  death  of  the  most  illustrious  and  most 
beloved  personage  this  country  has  ever  produced  ;  and 
which,  while  it  transmits  to  posterity  your  sense  of  the 
awful  event,  faintly  represents  your  knowledge  of  the  con- 
sunimate  excellence  you  so  cordially  honor. 

Desperate  indeed  is  any  attempt  on  earth  to  meet  cor- 
respondently  this  dispensation  of  heaven  ;  for,  while  with 
pious  resignation  we  submit  to  the  will  of  an  all  gracious 
Providence,  we  can  never  cease  lamenting  in  our  finite 
view  of  omnipotent  wisdom,  the  heart-rending  privation 
for  which  our  nation  weeps.  When  the  civilized  world 
shakes  to  the  centre  ;  when  every  moment  gives  birth  to 
strange  and  momentous  changes  ;  when  our  peaceful 
quarter  of  the  globe,  exempt  as  it  happily  has  been  from 
any  share  in  the  slaughter  of  the  human  race,  may  yet  be 
compelled  to  abandon  her  pacific  policy,  and  to  risque  the 
doleful  casualties  of  war  :  what  limit  is  there  to  the  extent 
of  our  loss? — None  within  the  reach  of  my  words  to  ex- 
press ;  none  which  our  feelings  will  not  disavow. 

The  founder  of  our  federal  republic — our  bulwark  in 
war,  our  guide  in  peace,  is  no  more  !  Oh  that  this  were 
but  questionable !  Hope,  the  comforter  of  the  wretched, 
would  pour  into  our  agonizing  hearts  its  balmy  dew.  But, 
alas  !  there  is  no  hope  for  us  !  Our  Washington  is  remov- 


SPEAKER.  537 

ed  forever !  Possessing  the  stoutest  frame,  and  purest  mind, 
he  had  passed  nearly  to  the  age  of  sixty  eight  years,  in  the 
enjoyment  of  high  health,  when,  habituated  by  his  care  of 
us  to  neglect  himself,?  a  slight  cold,  disregarded,  became 
inconvenient  on  Friday,  oppressive  on  Saturday,  and,  de- 
fying every  medical  interposition,  before  the  morning  of 
Sunday,  put  an  end  to  the  best  of  men !  An  end  did  I  say  ? 
— his  fame  survives  !  bounded  only  by  the  limits  of  the 
earth,  and  by  the  extent  of  the  human  mind.  He  survives 
in  our  hearts,  in  the  growing  knowledge  of  our  children, 
in  the  affection  of  the  good  throughout  the  world ;  and 
when  our  monuments  shall  be  done  away  ;  when  nations 
now  existing  shall  be  no  more ;  when  even  our  young  and 
far-spreading  empire  shall  have  perished,  still  will  our 
Washington's  glory  unfaded  shine,  and  die  not,  until  love 
of  virtue  cease  on  earth,  or  earth  itself  sink  into  chaos. 

How,  my  fellow-citizens,  shall  I  single  out  to  your 
grateful  hearts  his  pre-eminent  worth  ?  where  shall  I  begin 
in  opening  to  your  view  a  character  throughout  sublime  I 
shall  I  speak  of  his  warlike  achievements,  all  springing 
from  obedience  to  his  country's  will — all  directed  to  his 
country's  good  ? 

Moving  in  his  own  orbit,  he  imparted  heat  and  light  to 
his  most  distant  satellites  ;  and  combining  the  physical  and 
moral  force  of  all  within  his  sphere,  with  irresistable  weight 
he  took  his  course,  commiserating  folly,  disdaining  vice, 
dismaying  treason,  and  invigorating  despondency  ;  until 
the  auspicious  hour  arrives,  when  he  brought  to  submis- 
sion the  since  conqueror  of  India  ;  thus  finishing  his  lonr?- 
career  of  military  glory,  with  a  lustre  corresponding  to  his 
great  name,  and  in  this  his  last  act  of  war,  affixing  the  seal 
of  fate  to  our  nation's  birth. 

To  the  horrid  din  of  battle,  sweet  peace  succeeded  ;  and 
our  virtuous  chief,  mindful  only  of  the  common  good  in  a 
moment  tempting  personal  aggrandizement,  hushed  the 
discontents  of  growing  sedition  ;  and,  surrendering  his 
power  into  the  hands  from  which  he  had  received  it,  con- 
verted his  sword  into  a  ploughshare,  teaching  an  admiring 
world,  that  to  be  truly  great  you  must  be  truly  good. 

Was  1  to  stop  here,  the  picture  would  be  incomplete, 
and  the  task  imposed,  unfinished — Great  as  was  our  Wash- 
ington in  war,  and  as  much  as  did  that  greatness  contri- 

G  G 


338  AMERICAN 

bute  to  produce  the  American  Republic,  it  is  not  in  war 
alone  bis  pre-eminence  stands  conspicuous.  His  various 
talents,  combining  all  the  capacities  of  a  statesman  with 
those  of  a  soldier,  fitted  him  alike  to  guide  the  councils,  and 
the  armies  of  our  nation.  Scarcely  had  he  rested  from  his 
martial  toils,  while  his  invaluable  parental  advice  was  still 
sounding  in  our  ears,  \vhen  he  who  had  been  our  sword  and 
our  shield,  was  called  forth  to  act  a  less  splendid,  but  more 
important  part. 

Possessing  a  clear  and  penetrating  mind,  a  sound  and 
strong  judgment,  cijlmness  and  temper  for  deliberation, 
with  invincible  firmness  and  perseverance  in  resolutions, 
maturely  formed,  drawing  information  from  all,  acting  from 
himself,  with  incorruptible  integrity  and  unvarying  pat- 
riotism ;  his  own  superiority,  and  the  public  confidence 
alike  marked  him  as  the  man  designed  by  Heaven  to  lead 
in  the  politicrl  as  well  as  the  military  events  which  have 
distmguished  the  era  of  his  Hfe. 

The  finger  of  an  over-ruling  Providence,  pointing  at 
Washington,  was  neither  mistaken  nor  unobserved  ;  when, 
to  realize  ihe  vast  hopes  to  which  our  revolution  hnd  giv- 
en birth,  a  change  of  political  system  became  indispensable. 
How  novel,  how  grand  the  spectacle  !  Independent  States 
stretched  over  an  immense  territory,  and  known  only  by 
common  difficulty,  clinging  to  their  union  as  the  rock  of 
their  safety,  deciding  by  frank  comparison  of  their  rela- 
tive condition,  to  rear  on  that  rock,  under  the  guidance  of 
reason,  a  common  government,  thiough  whose  command- 
ing protection,  liberty  and  order,  with  their  long  train  of 
blessings,  should  be  safe  to  themselves  and  the  sure  inhe- 
ritance of  their  posterity. 

This  arduous  task  devolved  on  citizens  selected  by  the 
people,  from  knowledge  of  their  wisdom,  and  confidence 
in  their  virtue.  In  this  august  assembly  of  sages  and  pa- 
triots, Washington,  of  course,  was  found  ;  and,  as  if  ac- 
knowledged to  be  the  most  wise,  where  all  were  wise,  with 
one  voice,  he  was  declared  their  chief.  How  well  he  me- 
rited this  rare  distinction,  how  faithful  were  the  labors  of 
himself  and  his  couipatriots,  the  work  of  their  hands,  and 
our  union,  strength  and  prosperity,  the  fruit?  of  that  work 
^eBt  attests. 


SPEAKER.  33«i 

But,  to  have  essentially  aided  in  presenting  to  his  coun- 
try this  consummation  of  her  hopes,  neither  satisfied  the 
claims  of  his  fellow-citizens  on  his  talents,  nor  those  duties 
which  the  possession  of  those  talents  in^rosed.  Heaven 
had  not  infused  into  his  mmd  such  an  uncommon  shar-  of 
its  etherial  spirit  to  remain  unemployed,  nor  bestowed  on 
him  his  genius,  unaccompanied  with  the  correspo  iding 
duty  of  devoting  it  to  the  common  good.  To  have  framed 
a  constitution,  was  shewing  only,  without  realizing,  the  ge- 
neral happiness.  This  great  work  remained  to  be  done  ; 
and  America,  stedfast  in  her  preference,  with  one  voice 
summoned  her  beloved  Washington,  unpractised  as  he  was 
in  the  duties  of  civil  administration,  to  execute  this  last 
act  in  the  completion  of  the  national  felicity.  Obedient 
to  her  call,  he  assumed  that  high  office  with  that  self- dis- 
trust peculiar  to  his  innate  modesty,  the  constant  attendant 
of  pre-eminent  virtue. 

What  was  the  burst  of  joy,  through  our  anxious  land  on 
this  exhilerating  event,  is  known  to  us  all.  The  aged,  the 
young,  the  brave,  the  fair,  rivalled  each  other  in  demon- 
strations of  gratitude  ;  and  this  high  wrought,  delightful 
scene  was  heightened  in  its  effect,  by  the  singubr  contest 
between  the  zeal  of  the  bestowers  and  the  avoi.ianr.r  of 
the  receiver  of  the  honors  bestowed.  Commencing  his 
administration,  what  heart  is  not  charmed  with  the  recol- 
lection of  the  pure  and  wise  prmciples  announced  by  him- 
self, as  the  basis  of  his  political  life.  He  best  understood 
the  indissoluble  union  between  virtue  and  happiness,  be- 
tween duty  and  advantage,  between  the  genuine  maxims 
of  an  honest  and  magnanimous  policy,  and  the  solid  re- 
wards of  public  prosperity  and  individual  felicity;  watch- 
ing widi  equal  and  comprehensive  eye  over  this  great  assem- 
blage of  communities  and  interests,  he  laid  the  foundation 
of  our  national  policy  in  the  unerring,  immutable  princi- 
ples of  morality,  based  on  religion,  exemplifying  the  pre- 
eminence of  a  free  government,  by  all  the  attributes  which 
win  the  afl'ections  of  its  citizens,  or  command  the  respect 
:<)l  the  world. 


340  AMERICAN 


Inaugural  Speech  of  President  Adams — March  4th,  iT9t, 

Fellow-Citizns — When  it  was  first  perceived,  in  early 
times,  that  no  middle  course  for  America  remained,  be- 
tv/een  unlimited  submission  to  a  foreign  legislature,  and  a 
total  independer.ce  of  its  claims,  men  of  reflection  were 
less  apprehensive  of  danger  from  the  formidable  power  of 
fleets  and  armies  they  must  determine  to  resist,  than  from 
those  contests  and  dissentions  which  would  certainly  arise 
concerning  the  forms  of  government  to  be  instituted  over 
the  whole  and  over  the  parts  of  this  extensive  country. 
Relying,  however,  on  the  purity  of  their  mtentions,  the 
justice  of  their  cause,  and  the  integrity  and  intelligence  of 
the  people,  under  an  over-ruling  Providence,  which  had 
so  signally  protected  this  country  from  the  first,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  this  nation,  then  consisting  of  little  more  than 
half  its  present  numbers,  not  only  broke  to  pieces  the 
chains  which  were  forging,  and  the  rod  of  iron  that  was 
lifted  up,  but  frankly  cut  asunder  the  ties  which  had  bound 
them,  and  launched  into  an  ocean  of  uncertainty. 

The  zeal  and  ardour  of  the  people,  during  the  revolu- 
tionary war,  supplying  the  place  of  government,  command- 
ed a  degree  of  order,  sufficient  at  least  for  the  temporary 
preservation  of  society.  The  confederation,  which  was 
early  felt  to  be  necessary,  was  prepared  from  the  models 
of  the  Batavian  and  Helvetic  confederacies,  the  only  ex- 
amples which  remain  with  any  detail  and  precision,  in 
history,  and  certainly  the  only  ones  which  the  people  at 
large,  had  ever  considered.  But  reflecting  on  the  striking 
difierence,  in  so  many  particulars,  between  this  country 
and  those,  where  a  courier  may  go  from  the  seat  of  go- 
vernment to  the  frontier  in  a  single  day,  it  was  then  cer- 
tainly foreseen  by  some  who  assisted  in  congress  at  the 
formation  of  it,  that  it  could  not  be  durable. 

Negligence  of  its  regulations,  inattention  to  its  recom- 
mendations, if  not  disobedience  to  its  authority,  not  only 
in  individuals  but  in  states,  soon  appeared,  with  their  me- 
lancholy consequences ;  universal  languor,  jealousies  and 
rivalries  of  states ;  decline  of  navigation  and  commerce  ; 
discouragement  of  necessary  manuJactures ;  universal  falf 
jn  the  value  of  lands  and  their  produce  j  contempt  of  pub- 


SPEAKER.  3^1 

lie  and  private  faith  ;  loss  of  consideration  and  credit  with 
foreign  nations  ;  and  at  length,  in  discontents,  animosities, 
combinations,  partial  conventions,  and  insurrection,  threat- 
ening some  great  national  calamity. 

In  this  dangerous  crisis,  the  people  of  America  were  not 
abandoned,  by  their  usual  good  sense,  presence  of  mind, 
resolution  or  integrity. — Measures  were  pursued  to  con- 
cert a  plan,  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  estabhsh  justice, 
ensure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  de- 
fence, promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  bless- 
ings of  liberty.  The  public  disquisitions,  discussions,  and 
deliberations  issued  in  the  present  happy  constitution  of 
government. 

Employed  in  the  service  of  niy  country  abroad,  during 
the  whole  course  of  these  transactions,  I  first  saw  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  in  a  foreign  country.  Irri- 
tated oy  no  literary  altercation,  animated  by  no  public  de- 
bate, heated  by  no  party  animosity,  I  read  it  with  great 
satisfaction,  as  a  result  of  good  heads,  prompted  by  good 
hearts ;  as  an  experiment,  better  adapted  to  the  genius, 
character,  situation  and  relations  of  this  nation  and  coun- 
try^ than  any  which  had  ever  bt-en  proposed  or  suggested. 
In  its  general  principles  and  great  outlines,  it  was  con- 
formable to  such  a  system  of  government,  as  I  had  ever 
most  esteemed,  and  in  some  states,  my  own  native  state 
in  particular,  had  contributed  to  establish.  Claiming  a 
right  of  suffrage,  in  common  with  my  fellow-citizens,  in 
the  adoption  or  rejection,  of  a  constitution  which  was  to 
rule  me  and  my  posterity,  as  well  as  them  and  theirs,  I 
did  not  hesitate  to  express  my  approbation  of  it,  on  all  oc- 
casions, in  public  and  in  private.  It  was  not  then,  nor  has 
been  since,  any  objection  to. it,  in  my  mind,  that  the  execu- 
tive  and  senate  were  not  more  perinanent.  Nor  have  I 
ever  entertained  a  thought  of  promoting  any  alteration  in 
it,  but  such  as  the  people  themselves,  in  the  course  of  their 
experience  should  see  and  feel  to  be  necessary  or  expe- 
dient, and  by  their  representatives  in  congress  and  the 
state  legislatures,  according  to  the  constitution  itself,  adopt 
and  ordain. 

Returning  ta  the  bosom  of  my  country,  after  a  painful 
separation  from  it,  for  ten  years,  I  had  the  honour  to  be 
elected  to  a  station  under  the  new  order  of  things,  and  I 

G  G  3 


342  AMERICAN 

have  repeatedly  laid  myself  under  the  most  serious  obli- 
gations to  support  the  constitution.  The  operation  of  it 
has  equalled  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  its  friends; 
and  from  an  habitual  attention  to  it,  satisfaction  in  its  ad- 
ministration and  delight  in  its  effects,  upon  the  peace,  or^ 
der,  prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  nation,  I  have  acquir- 
ed an  habitual  attachment  to  it,  and  veneration  for  it. 

What  other  form  of  government  indeed  can  so  well  de- 
serve our  esteem  and  love  ? 

There  may  be  little  solidity  in  an  ancient  idea,  that  con- 
gregations of  men  into  cities  and  nations,  are  the  most 
pleasing  objects  in  the  sight  of  superior  intelligences  ;  but 
this  is  very  certain,  that  to  a  benevolent  human  mind, 
there  can  be  no  spectacle  presented  by  any  nation,  more 
pleasing,  more  noble,  majestic  or  august,  than  an  assem- 
bly like  that  which  has  so  often  been  seen  in  this  and  the 
other  chamber  of  congress,  of  a  government  in  which  the 
executive  authority,  as  well  as  that  of  all  the  branches  of 
the  legislature,  are  exercised  by  citizens  selectt^d,  at  regu- 
lar periods,  by  their  neighbours,  to  make  and  execute  laws 
for  the  general  good.  Can  any  thing  essential,  any  thing 
more  than  mere  ornament  and  decoration  be  added  to  this 
by  robes  or  diamonds?  Can  authority  be  more  amiable  or 
respectable,  when  it  descends  from  accidents,  or  institu- 
tions established  in  remote  antiquity,  than  when  it  springs 
fresh  from  the  hearts  and  judgments  of  an  honest  and  en- 
lightened people  ?  For  it  is  the  people  only  that  are  repre- 
sented :  it  is  their  power  and  majesty  that  is  reflected,  and 
only  for  their  good,  in  every  legitimate  government,  under 
whatever  form  it  may  appear.  The  existence  of  such  a 
government  as  ours,  for  any  length  of  time,  is  a  full  proof 
of  a  generaldisseminationof  knowledge  and  virtue,  through- 
out the  whole  body  of  the  people.  And  what  object  or  con- 
sideration more  pleasing  than  this  can  be  presented  to  the. 
human  mind  I  If  national  pride  is  ever  justifiable  or  excu- 
sable, it  is  when  it  springs,  not  from  power  or  riches,  gran- 
deur or  glory,  but  from  conviction  of  national  innocence, 
iniormation,  and  benevolence. 

In  the  midst  of  these  pleasing  ideas,  we  should  be  un- 
fauhiul  to  ourselves,  if  we  should  ever  lose  sight  of  the 
danger  to  our  liberties,  if  any  thing  partial  or  extraneous 
should  infect  the  purity  of  our  free,  fair,  virtuous,  and  in- 


SPEAKER.  345 

dependent  elections.  If  an  election  is  to  be  determined 
by  a  majority  of  a  single  vote,  and  that  can  be  procured 
by  a  party,  through  artifice  or  corruption,  the  government 
may  be  the  choice  of  a  party,  for  its  own  ends,  not  of  the 
nation,  for  the  national  good.  If  that  solitary  suffrage  can 
be  obtained  by  foreign  nations  by  flattery  or  menaces,  by 
fraud  or  violence,  by  terror,  intrigue  or  venality,  the  gov- 
ernment may  not  be  the  choice  of  the  American  people^ 
but  of  foreign  nations.  It  may  be  foreign  nations  who 
govern  us,  and  not  we  the  people,  who  govern  ourselvesa 
And  candid  men  will  acknowledge,  that  in  such  cases 
choice  would  have  Uttle  advantage  to  boast  of,  over  lot  or 
chance. 

Such  is  the  amiable  and  interesting  system  of  govern- 
ment, and  such  are  some  of  the  abuses  to  which  it  may  be 
exposed,  which  the  people  of  America  have  exhibited  to 
the  admiration  and  anxiety  of  the  wise  and  virtuous  of  all 
nations,  for  eight  years,  under  the  administration  of  a  ci- 
tizen, who,  by  a  long  course  of  great  actions,  regulated  by 
prudence,  justice,  temperance,  and  fortitude,  conducting* 
a  people,  inspired  with  the  same  virtues,  and  animated 
with  the  same  ardent  patriotism  and  love  of  liberty,  to  in- 
dependence and  peace,  to  increasing  wealth  and  unexam- 
pled prosperity,  has  merited  the  gratitude  of  his  fellojv- 
citizens,  commanded  the  highest  prVises  o£  foreign  na- 
tions, and  secured  immortal  glory  with  posterity. 

In  that  retirement  which  is  his  voluntary  choice,  may 
he  long  live  to  enjoy  the  delicious  recollection  of  his  ser- 
vices, the  gratitude  of  mankind;  the  happy  fruits  of  them 
to  himself  and  the  world,  which  are  daily  increasing,  and 
that  splendid  prospect  of  the  future  fortunes  of  his  coun- 
try, which  is  opening  from  year  to  year.  His  name  may 
I  be  still  a  rampart,  and  the  knowledge  that  he  lives  a  bul- 
wark against  all  open  or  secret  enemies  of  his  country's 
peace. 

This  example  has  been  recommended  to  the  imitation 
of  his  successors,  by  both  houses  of  congress,  and  by  the 
voice  of  the  legislatures  and  the  people,  throughout  the 
nation. 

On  this  subject  it  might  become  me  better  to  be  silent 
or  to  speak  with  diffidence  5  but  as  something  may  be  ex.** 


344  AMERICAN 

pected,  the  occasion,  I  hope,  will  be  admitted  as  an  apolo- 
gy, it  I  venture  to  say,  that 

If,  a  preference,  upon  principle,  of  a  free  republican  go- 
vernment, formed  upon  long  and  serious  reflection,  after 
a  diligent  and  impartial  inquiry  after  truth ;  if,  an  attach- 
ment to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  a  con- 
scientious determination  to  support  it,  until  it  shall  be  al- 
tered by  the  judgments  and  wishes  of  the  people,  express- 
ed in  the  mode  prescribed  in  it ; — if,  a  respectful  attention 
to  the  constitutions  ©f  the  individual  states,  and  a  constant 
caution  and  delicacy  towards  the  state  governments  ;  if,  an 
equal  and  impartial  regard  to  the  rights,  interests,  hon- 
our, and  happiness  of  all  the  states  in  the  union,  without 
preference  or  regard  to  a  Northern  or  Southern,  an  East- 
ern or  Western  position,  their  various  political  opinions  on 
unessential  points,  or  their  personal  attachments  ;  if  a  love 
of  virtuous  men  of  all  parties  and  denominations  ;  if  a  love 
of  science  and  letters,  and  a  wish  to  patronise  every  ra- 
tional effort  to  encourage  schools,  colleges,  universities, 
academies,  and  every  institution  for  propagating  know- 
ledge, virtue,  and  religion  among  all  classes  of  the  people  : 
not  only  for  their  benign  infiuence  on  the  happiness  of  life, 
in  all  its  stages  and  classes,  and  of  society  in  all  its  forms  ; 
hut  as  the  only  means  of  preserving  our  constitution  from 
hs  natural  enemies,  the  spirit  of  sophistry,  the  spirit  of 
party,  the  spirit  of  intrigue,  the  profligacy  of  corruption, 
and  the  pestilence  of  foreign  influence,  which  is  the  angel 
of  destruction  to  elective  governments  ;  if  a  love  of  equal 
laws,  of  justice  and  humanity,  in  the  interior  administra- 
tion ;  if  an  inclination  to  improve  agriculture,  commerce 
and  manufactures  lor  necessity ,  convenience  and  defence  ; 
if  a  spirit  of  equity  and  humanity  towards  the  aboriginal 
nations  of  America,  and  a  disposition  to  meliorate  their 
condition,  by  inclining  them  to  be  more  friendly  to  us,  and 
our  citizens  to  be  more  friendly  to  them  ;  if  .m  inflexible 
determination  to  maintain  peace  and  inviolable  faith,  with 
all  nations,  and  that  system  of  neutrality  and  impartiality 
among  the  belligerent  powers  of  Europe,  which  has  been 
adopted  by  this  government,  and  so  solemnly  sanctioned 
by  both  houses  of  congress,  and  applauded  by  the  legisla- 
tures of  the  states  and  the  public  opinion,  until  it  shall  be 
©therwise  ordamed  by  congress  j  if  a  personal  esteem  for 


SPEAKER.  us 

the  French  nation,  formed  in  a  residence  of  seven  years, 
chiefly,  among  them,  and  a  sincere  desire  to  preserve  the 
friendship  which  has  been  so  much  for  the  honour  and  in- 
terest of  both  nations;  if  while  the  conscious  honour  and 
integrity  of  the  people  of  America  and  the  internal  senti- 
ment of  their  own  power  and  energies  must  be  preserved 
an  earnest  endeavour  to  investigate  every  just  cause,  and 
remove  every  colourable  pretence  of  complaint;  if  an  in- 
tention to  pursue,  by  amicable  negociation,  a  reparation 
for  the  injuries  that  have  been  committed  on  the  com- 
merce of  our  fellow-citizens  by  whatever  nation  ;  and  if 
success  cannot  be  obtained,  to  lay  the  facts  before  the  le- 
gislature, that  they  may  consider,  what  further  measures 
the  honour  and  interest  of  the  government  and  its  consti- 
tuents demand  ;  if  a  resolution  to  do  justice,  as  far  as  may 
depend  upon  me,  at  all  times  and  to  all  nations,  and  main- 
tain peace,  friendship  and  benevolence  with  all  the  world  ', 
if  an  unshaken  confidence  in  the  honour,  spirit,  and  re- 
sources of  the  American  people,  on  which  I  have  so  often 
hazarded  my  all,  and  never  been  deceived  ;  if,  elevated 
ideas  of  the  high  destinies  of  this  country,  and  of  my  owq 
duties  towards  it,  founded  on  a  knowledge  of  the  moral 
principles  and  intellectual  improvements  of  the  people, 
deeply  engraven  on  my  mind  in  early  life,  and  not  obscur- 
ed but  exalted  by  experience  and  age  ; — and  with  humble 
reverence  1  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  add,  if  a  veneration 
for  the  religion  of  a  people,  who  profess  and  call  them- 
selves christians,  and  a  fixed  resolution  to  consider  a  de- 
cent respect  for  Christianity,  among  the  best  recommenda- 
tions for  the  public  service,  can  enable  me,  in  any  degree, 
to  comply  with  your  wishes,  it  shall  be  my  strenuous  en- 
deavour that  this  sagacious  injunction  of  the  t^vo  houses 
shall  not  be  without  effect. 

With  this  gn  at  example  before  me  ;  with  the  sense  and 
spirit,  the  faith  and  honour,  the  duty  and  interest  of  the 
same  American  people,  pledged  to  support  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  I  entertain  no  doubt  of  its  con- 
tinuance in  all  its  energy,  and  my  mind  is  prepared,  with- 
out hesitation,  to  lay  myself  under  the  most  solemn  obli- 
gations to  support  it,  to  the  utmost  of  my  power. 

And  may  that  Being,  who  is  supreme  over  all,  the  pa- 
tron of  order,  the  fountain  of  justice,  and  the  protector,  in 


546  AMERICAN 

all  ages  of  the  world,  of  virtuous  liberty,  continue  his 
blessing  upon  this  nation  and  its  government,  and  give  it 
all  possible  success  and  duration,  consistent  with  the  ends 
of  his  Providence. 

JOHN  ADAMS. 
Washmgton^  March  Uh^  1 797. 

Inaugural  Speech  of  President  Jefferson^  March  4th ^  1801: 

Friends  and  Fellow-citizens, — Called  upon  to  undertake 
the  duties  of  the  first  executive  office  of  our  country,  I  avail 
myself  of  the  presence  of  that  portion  of  my  fellow-citi- 
zens, which  is  here  assembled,  to  express  my  grateful 
thanks,  for  the  favour  with  which  they  have  been  please.d 
to  look  towards  me  ;  to  declare  a  sincere  consciousness, 
that  the  task  is  above  my  talents,  and  that  I  approach  it 
with  those  anxious  and  awful  presentiments,  which  the 
greatness  of  the  charge  and  the  weakness  of  my  powers, 
so  justly  inspire. 

A  rising  nation  spread  over  a  wide  and  fruitful  land — 
traversing  all  the  seas  with  the  rich  productions  of  their 
industry — engaged  in  commerce  with  nations  who  feel  pow- 
er and  forget  right — advancing  rapidly  to  destinies  beyond 
the  reach  of  mortal  eye  :  When  I  contemplate  these  tran- 
scendent objects,  and  see  the  honour,  the  happiness,  and 
the  hopes  of"  this  beloved  country,  committed  to  the  issue 
and  the  auspices  of  this  day,  I  shrink  from  the  contempla- 
tion, and  humble  myself  before  the  magnitude  of  the  un- 
dertaking. Utterly,  indeed,  should  I  despair,  did  not  the 
presence  of  many  whom  I  here  see,  remind  me  that  in  the 
other  high  authorities  provided  by  our  constitution,  I  shall 
find  resources  of  wisdom,  of  virtue,  and  of  zeal,  on  which 
to  rely  under  all  difficulties.  To  you,  then,  gendemen,  wht) 
are  charged  with  the  sovereign  functions  of  legislation,  and 
to  those  associated  with  you,  I  look  with  encouragement 
for  that  guidance  and  support,  which  may  enable  us  to 
Steer  with  safety  the  vessel  in  which  we  are  all  embarked, 
amidst  the  conflicting  elements  of  a  troubled  world. 

During  the  contest  of  opinion  through  which  we  have 
past,  the  animation  of  discussion,  and  of  exertions,  has 
sometimes  worn  an  aspect  which  might  impose  on  strangers, 
unused  to  think  freely,  and  to  write  what  they  think ;  but 


SPEAKER.  34r 

this  being  now  decided  by  the  voice  of  the  union,  announ- 
ced according  to  the  rules  of  the  constitution,  all  will,  of 
course,  arrange  themselves  under  the  will  of  the  law,  and 
unite  in  common  efforts  for  the  common  good.  All,  too, 
will  bear  in  mind  this  sacred  principle— that  though  the 
will  of  the  majority  is,  in  all  cases  to  prevail,  that  will  to 
be  rightful,  must  be  reasonable — that  the  minority  possess 
their  equal  rights,  which  equal  laws  must  protect,  and  to 
violate  would  be  oppression.  Let  us  then,  fellow-citizens, 
unite  with  one  heart  and  one  mind.  Let  us  restore  to  so- 
cial intercourse,  that  harmony  and  affection  without  which, 
liberty,  and  even  life  itself,  are  but  dreary  things.  And 
let  us  reflect,  that  having  banished  from  our  land,  that  re- 
ligious intolerance  under  which  mankind  so  long  bled  and 
suffered,  we  have  yet  gained  little,  if  we  countenance  a  po- 
litical intolerance,  as  despotic  as  wicked,  and  capable  of 
as  bitter  and  bloody  persecutions. 

During  the  throes  and  convulsions  of  the  ancient  world, 
— during  the  agonizing  spasms  of  infuriated  man,  seeking, 
through  blood  and  slaughter,  his  long-lost  liberty,  it  was 
not  wonderful  that  the  agitation  of  the  billows,  should  re.tch 
even  this  distant  and  peaceful  shore — that  this  should  be 
more  ftlt  and  feared  by  some,  and  less  hy  others — and 
should  divide  opinions  as  to  measures  of  safety.  But  every 
diflerence  of  opinion,  is  not  a  diff  rence  of  principle.  We 
have  called  by  ditTcrent  names,  brethren  of  the  same  prin- 
ciple-. We  are  all  republicans  :  we  are  all  federalists. 
If  there  be  any  among  us  who  would  wish  to  dissolve  this 
union,  or  to  change  its  republican  form,  let  them  stand  un- 
disturbed, as  monuments  of  the  safety  with  which  error 
of  opinion  may  be  tolerated,  where  reason  is  left  free  to 
combat  it.  I  know,  indeed,  that  seme  honest  men  fear  a 
republican  government  catmot  be  strong — that  this  govern- 
ment is  not  strong  enough.  But  would  the  honest  patriot 
in  the  full  tide  of  successful  experipient,  abandon  a  gov- 
ernment which  has  so  far  kept  us  fiee  and  firm,  on  the 
theoretic  and  visionary  fear,  that  this  government,  the 
world's  best  hope,  may  by  possibility  want  energy  to  pre- 
serve itself?  I  trust  not.  I  believe  this,  on  the  contrary 
the  strongest  government  on  earth.  I  belifjve  it  the  c^nly 
one  where  every  man,  at  the  call  of  the  law,  would  fly  to 
the  standard  of  the  law,  and  would  meet  invasions  of  the 


Ub  AMERICAN 

public  order,  as  his  own  personal  concern.  Sometimes  it 
is  said  that  man  cannot  bt  trusted  with  the  government  of 
himself.  Can  he  then  be  trusted  with  the  government  of 
others?  Or  have  we  found  angels  in  the  form  of  kings,  to 
govern  him  ?  Let  history  answer  this  question. 

Let  us  then  with  courage  and  confidence,  pursue  our 
own  federal  and  republican  principles— our  attachment  to 
union  and  representative  government.  Kindly  separated 
by  nature  and  a  wide  ocean  from  the  exterminating  havoc 
of  one  quarter  of  the  globe — too  high-minded  to  endure 
the  degradations  of  the  others — possessing  a  chosen  coun- 
try, with  room  enough  for  our  descendants  to  the  thousandth 
and  thousandth  generation — entertaining  a  due  sense  of 
our  equal  right  to  the  use  of  our  own  faculties — to  the  ac- 
quisitions of  our  own  industry — to  honour  and  confidence 
from  our  fellow-citizens ;  resulting  not  from  birth,  but  from 
our  actions,  and  their  sense  of  them,  enlightened  by  a  be- 
nign religion,  professed,  indeed,  and  practised  in  various 
forms,  yet  all  of  them  inculcating  honesty,  truth,  tempe- 
rance, gratitude,  and  the  love  of  man — acknowledging 
and  adoring  an  over-ruling  Providence,  which  by  all  its 
dispensations,  proves  that  it  delights  in  the  happiness  of 
man  here,  and  his  greater  happiness  hereafter — with  all 
these  blessings  what  is  more  necessary  to  make  us  a  pros- 
perous and  happy  people  ?  Still  one  thing  more,  fellow-ci- 
tizens, a  wise  and  frugal  government,  which  shall  restrain 
men  from  injuring  one  another ;  shall  leave  them  otherwise 
free  to  regulate  their  own  pursuits  of  industry  and  improve- 
ment ;  and  shall  not  take  from  the  mouth  of  labour  what  it 
has  earned.  This  is  the  sum  of  good  government,  and  this 
is  necessary  to  close  the  circle  of  our  felicities. 

About  to  enter,  fellow-citizens,  on  the  exercises  of  du- 
ties which  comprehend  every  thing  dear  and  valuable  to 
you,  it  is  proper  you  should  understand  what  I  deem  the 
essential  principles  of  our  government,  and  consequently 
those  which  ought  to  shape  its  administration.  I  will  com- 
press them  within  the  narrowest  compass  they  will  bear, 
stating  the  general  priijciple,  but  not  all  its  limitations. 
Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men,  of  whatever  state  or 
persuasion,  religious  or  political — peace,  commerce,  and 
honest  Irienuship  with  all  nations — entangling  alliances 
with  none— the  support  of  the  state  governments  in  all 


SPEAKER.  549 

their  rights,  as  the  iiiost  competent  administrations  for  our 
domestic  concerns,  and  the  surest  bulwarks  against  anti-re- 
publican tendencies — the  preservation  of  the  general  gov- 
ernment in  its  whole  constitutional  vigour,  as  the  sheet  an- 
chor of  our  peace  at  home  and  safety  abroad — a  zealous 
care  of  the  right  of  election  by  the  people — a  mild  and 
safe  corrective  of  abuses,  which  are  lopped  by  the  sword 
of  revolution  where  peaceable  remedies  are  unprovided — 
absolute  acquiescence  in  the  decisions  of  the  majority,  the 
vital  principle  of  republics,  from  which  tiiire  is  no  «»ppea!, 
but  to  force,  the  vital  principle  and  immediate  parent  of 
despotism — a  well  disciplined  militia,  our  best  reliance  in 
peace  and  for  the  first  moments  of  war,  till  regulars  may 
relieve  them — the  supremacy  of  the  civil  over  the  military 
authority— economy  in  the  public  expense,  that  labour  may 
be  lightly  burthened — the  honest  payment  of  our  debts, 
and  sacred  preservation  of  public  fiath — L-ncoar  igement 
of  agriculture  and  of  commerce  as  its  handin  iid — the  dif- 
fusion of  information,  and  arraignment  of  all  abuses  at  the 
bar  of  public  reason — freedom  of  religion — freedom  of 
the  press — freedom  of  person  under  the  protection  of  the 
habeas  corpus ;  and  trial  by  juries  impartially  selected. 
These  principles  form  the  bright  constellation  which  has 
gone  before  us,  and  guided  our  steps  through  an  age  of 
revolution  and  reformation.  The  wisdom  of  our  sages, 
and  blood  of  our  heroes,  have  been  devoted  to  their  attain- 
ment. They  should  be  the  creed  of  our  political  f  lith — 
the  text  of  civic  instruction — the  touchstone  by  which  to 
try  the  services  of  those  we  trust:  and  should  we  wander 
from  them  in  the  moments  of  error  or  alarm,  let  us  hasten 
to  retrace  our  steps,  and  to  r  gain  the  road  which  aione 
leads  to  peace,  liberty,  and  safety, 

I  repair  then,  fellow-citizens,  to  the  post  you  have  as- 
signed me,  with  experience  enough  in  subordinate  offices, 
to  have  seen  the  difficulties  of  this,  the  gre.itest  of  ail ;  I 
have  learned  to  expect  that  it  will  rarely  fall  to  the  lot  of 
imperfect  man,  to  retire  from  this  station  with  the  reputa- 
tion and  the  favour  which  bring  him  into  it.  VVitnout  pre- 
tensions to  that  high  confidence  you  reposed  in  our  Hrst 
and  greatest  revolutionary  character,  whose  pre-eminent 
services  had  entitled  him  to  the  first  place  in  his  cuunirv's 
love,  and  destined  for  him  the  fairest  page  in  the  volamf 

H    H 


350  AMERICAN 

of  faithful  history,  I  ask  so  much  confidence  only,  as  may 
give  firmness  and  effect  to  the  legal  administration  of  your 
affairs.  I  shall  often  go  wrong,  through  defect  of  judgment. 
When  right,  I  shall  often  be  thought  wrong,  by  those  whose 
positions  will  not  command  a  view  of  the  whole  ground.  I 
ask  your  indulgence  for  my  own  errors,  which  will  never 
be  intentional :  and  your  support  against  the  errors  of  others, 
who  may  condemn  what  they  would  not,  if  seen  in  all  its 
parts.  The  approbation  implied  by  your  suffrage  is  a  great 
consolation  to  me  for  the  past :  and  my  future  solicitude 
will  be,  to  retain  the  good  opinion  of  those  who  have  be- 
stowed it  in  advance,  to  conciliate  that  of  others  by  doing 
them  all  the  good  in  my  power,  and  to  be  instrumental  to 
the  happiness  and  freedom  of  all. 

Relying  then  on  the  patronage  of  your  good  will,  I  ad- 
vance with  obedience  to  the  work,  ready  to  retire  from  it 
whenever  )  ou  become  sensible  how  much  better  choices  it 
is  in  your  power  to  make.  And  may  that  Infinite  Power 
which  rules  the  destinies  of  the  Universe,  lead  our  coun- 
cils to  what  is  best  and  give  them  a  favourable  issue  for 
your  peace  and  prosperity. 

TH:  JEFFERSON. 

Washington,  March  4th,  1801. 


Inaugural  Speech  of  Presidmt  Madison — March  4th,  1809. 

Fellow-Citizens, — Unwilling  to  depart  from  examples, 
of  the  most  revered  authority,  I  avail  myself  of  the  occa- 
sion now  presented,  to  express  the  profound  impression 
made  on  me,  by  the  call  of  my  country  to  the  station,  to 
the  duties  of  which  I  am  about  to  pledge  myself,  by  the 
most  solemn  of  sanctir  ns.  So  distinguished  a  mark  of 
confidence  proceeding  Irom  the  deliberate  and  tranquil 
suffrage  of  a  free  and  virtuous  nation,  would,  under  any 
circumstances,  command  my  gratitude  and  devotion — as 
well  as  fill  me  with  an  awful  sense  of  the  trust  to  be  as- 
sumed. Under  the  various  circumstances  which  give  pe- 
culiar solemnity  to  the  existing  period,  I  feel  that  both  the 
honour  and  the  responsibility  allotted  to  me,  are  inexpres- 
sibly enhanced* 


SPEAKER.  351 

The  present  situation  of  the  world  is  indeed  without  a 
parallel,  and  that  of  our  own  country  full  of  difficulties. 
Th:-  pressure  of  these  too,  is  the  more  severely  felt, because 
they  have  fallen  upon  us  at  a  moment,  when  national  pros- 
perity being  at  a  height  not  before  attained,  the  contrast 
resuming  from  the  change  has  been  rendered  the  more 
strikii*>g.  Under  the  benign  influence  of  our  republican 
institutions,  and  the  maintenance  of  peace  with  all  nations, 
whilst  so  many  of  them  were  engaged  in  bloody  and  waste- 
ful wars,  the  fruits  of  a  just  policy  were  enjoyed  in  an  un- 
rivalled growth  of  our  faculties  and  resources.  Proofs  of 
this  were  seen  in  the  improvements  of  agriculture  ;  in  the 
successful  enterprises  of  commerce;  in  the  progress  of 
manufactures  and  useful  arts  ;  in  the  increase  of  the  pub- 
lic revenue,  and  the  use  made  of  it  in  reducing  the  public 
debt,  and  in  the  valuable  works  and  establishments  every 
where  multiplying  over  the  face  of  our  land. 

It  is  a  precious  reflection  that  the  transition  from  this 
prosperous  condition  of  our  country  to  the  scene  which 
has  for  some  time  been  distressing  us,  is  not  chargeable 
on  any  unwarrantable  views,  nor,  as  I  trust,  on  any  invo- 
luntary errors,  in  the  public  councils.  Indulging  no  pas- 
sions which  trespass  on  the  rights  or  the  repose  of  other  na- 
tions, it  has  been  the  true  glory  of  the  United  States  to 
cultivate  peace  by  observing  justice,  and  to  entitle  them- 
selves to  the  respect  of  the  nations  at  war,  by  fulfilling 
their  neutral  obligations,  with  the  most  scrupulous  impar- 
tiality. If  there  be  candor  in  the  world,  the  truth  of  these 
assertions  will  not  be  questioned,  Posterity  at  least  will 
do  justice  to  them. 

This  unexceptionable  course  could  not  avail  against  the 
injustice  and  violence  of  the  belligerent  powers.  In  their 
rage  against  each  other,  or  impelled  by  more  direct  motives, 
principles  of  retaliation  have  been  introduced,  equally  con- 
trary to  universal  reason  and  acknowledged  law.  How 
long  tlieir  arbitrary  edicts,  will  be  continued  in  spite  of  the 
demonstrations  that  not  even  a  pretext  for  them  ha^  been 
given  by  the  United  States,  and  of  the  fair  and  liberal  at- 
tempts to  induce  a  relocation  of  them,  cannot  be  anticipa- 
ted. Assuring  myself  ihat,  under  every  vicissitude,  the 
detitrmined  spirit  and  united  councils  of  the  nation  will  be 
safeguards  to  its  honor  and  its  essential  interests,  I  re- 


352  AMERICAN 

pr.ir  to  the  post  assigned  me,  with  no  other  discourage- 
ment tha.  vvhct  springs  from  my  own  inadequacy  to  its 
high  di.ties.  It  I  do  not  sink  under  the  weight  of  this 
de<  J)  conviction,  it  is  because  I  find  some  support  in  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  purnt^ses,  and  a  confidence  in  the  princi- 
ples, which  I  bring  with  me  into  this  arduous  service. 

To  cherish  peace  and  friendly  intercourse  with  all  na- 
tions, having  correspondent  dispositions;  to  maintain  sin- 
cere- neutrality  towarus  bellig- rent  nations;  to  pre  ft  r,  in 
aii  cases,  amicable  discussions  and  reasonable  accommoda- 
tions of  diflfertnces,  to  a  decision  of  them  by  an  appeal  to 
arms  ;  to  exclude  foreign  intrigues  and  foreign  partialities, 
so  degrading  to  all  countries  and  so  baneful  to  free  ones  ; 
to  foster  a  spirit  of  independ-nce,  too  just  to  invade  the 
rights  of  others ;  too  proud  to  surrender  our  own  ;  too  libe- 
ral to  indulge  unworihj^  prejudices  ourselves  ;  and  too  ele- 
vated not  to  look  down  upon  them  in  t)thers  ;  to  hold  the 
union  of  the  states  as  the  basis  of  their  peace  and  happi- 
ness ;  to  support  the  constitution  which  is  the  cement  of 
the  union,  as  well  in  its  limitations,  as  in  its  authorities ; 
to  respect  the  rights  and  authorities  reserved  to  the  states 
imd  to  the  people,  as  equally  incorporated  with,  and  essen- 
tial to  the  success  of  the  general  system  ;  and  to  avoid  the 
slightest  interference  with  the  rights  of  conscience,  or  the 
functions  of  religion  so  wisely  exempted  from  civil  jurisdic- 
tion ;  to  preserve  to  their  full  energ)-  the  other  salutary  pro- 
visions in  behalf  of  private  and  personal  rights,  and  of  the 
freedom  of  the  press  ;  to  observe  economy  in  public  expen- 
ditures ;  to  liberate  the  public  resources  by  an  honourable 
discharge  of  the  public  debts  ;  to  keep  within  the  requisite 
limits  a  standing  military  force, always  remembering  that  an 
armed  and  trained  mihtia  is  the  firmest  bulwark  of  repub- 
lican governments,  that  without  standing  armies  their  liber- 
ty can  never  be  in  danger;  nor,  with  large  ones,  safe  ;  to 
promote  by  authorized  means  improvements  friendly  to 
agriculture,  and  to  external,  as  well  as  internal  commerce  ; 
to  favour,  in  like  manner  the  advancement  of  science  and 
the  diffusion  of  information^  as  the  best  aliment  to  true 
liberty;  to  carry  on  the  benevolent  plans  vhich  has  been 
so  meritoriously  applied  to  the  conversion  of  our  aborigi- 
nal neighbours  from  the  degradation  and  wretchedness  <^f 
savage  life  to  a  participation  of  the  improvements  of  which 


SPEAKER.  253 

the  human  mind  and  manners  are  susceptible  in  a  civihzed 
state.  As  far  as  sentiments  and  intentions  such  as  these 
can  aid  the  fulfilment  of  my  duty,  they  will  be  a  resource 
which  cannot  fail  me. 

It  is  my  good  fortune  moreover  to  have  the  p:Uh  in 
which  I  am  to  tread  lighted  by  examples  of  illustrious  ser- 
vices, successfully  rendered  in  the  most  trying  difficulties 
by  those  who  have  marched  before  me.  Of  those  of  my 
im mediate  predecessor,  it  might  least  become  me  here  to 
speak — I  may  however  be  pardoned  for  not  suppressing 
the  sympathy  with  which  my  heart  is  full,  in  the  rich  re- 
ward he  enjoys  in  the  benediction  of  a  beloved  country, 
gratefully  bestowed  for  exnited  talents,  zealously  devoted 
through  a  long  career,  to  the  advancemc;nt  of  its  highest 
interest  and  happiness. — But  the  source  to  which  I  look 
for  the  aids,  which  alone  can  supply  my  deficiencies,  is 
in  the  well  tried  intelligence  and  virtvte  of  my  fellow-citi- 
zens and  in  the  care  of  the  national  interest.  In  these  my 
confidence  will,  under  every  difficulty,  be  best  placed, next 
to  thca  which  we  have  all  been  encouraged  to  feel  in  the 
guardianship  and  guidance  of  that  Almi.hty  Being,  whose 
ppwer  regulates  the  destiny  of  nations — whose  blessings 
have  been  so  conspicuously  dispensed  to  this  rising  repub- 
lic, and  to  whom  we  are  bound  to  address  our  devout  gra- 
titude for  the  past,  as  well  as  our  fervent  supplications  andl 
best  hopes  for  the  future. 

JAMES  MADISON, 

Washington^  March  Athy  1809^ 

Extract  from  Mr,  Ameses  Speech  on  the  British  Treali/* 

If  any,  should  maintain  that  the  peace  with  the  Indians 
will  lie  stabh  with(ujt  the  Posts,  to  them  I  will  urge  ano^ 
ther  repl\.  From  arguments  calculated  to  produce  convic- 
tion, 1  will  appeal  directly  to  th»  hv-arts  of  those  who  hear 
me,  and  ask  whether  it  is  not  already  planted  there  ?  I  re- 
sort especially  to  the  convictions  of  the  western  gentlemeng. 
whether,  supposing  no  posts  and  no  treaty,  the  settlers 
will  remain  in  security  I  Can  they  take  it  upon  theiiv  to 
say,  that  an  Indian  peace  under  these  circumstances,  will 
prove  firm  I  No^  sir^  it  will  not  be  peace  bvi^,  ?,  ^wordf  i=: 

H  k2^ 


254  AMERICAN 

will  be  no  belter  than  a  lure  to  draw  victims  withm  the 
reach  of  the  tomahawk. 

On  this  theme,  my  emotions  are  unutterable.  If  I 
could  find  words  for  them,  if  my  powers  bore  any  pro- 
portion to  m\  Zral,  I  would  swell  my  voice  to  such  a  note 
of  renionstranct ,  it  should  reach  every  log-house  beyond 
the  mountains.  I  would  say  to  the  inhabitants,  wake  from 
your  false  security.  Your  cruel  dangers,  your  more  cruel 
apprehensions  ar^  soon  to  be  renewed :  The  wounds,  yet 
unUtaltd,  are  to  be  torn  open  again.  In  the  day  time,  your 
path  through  the  woods  will  be  ambushed.  The  darkness 
of  m  dnightwill  glitter  with  the  blaze  of  your  dwellings. 
You  are  a  father — the  blood  of  your  sons  shall  fatten  your 
corn-field.  You  are  a  mother — the  war  whoop  shall  wake- 
the  sleep  of  the  cradle. 

On  this  subject  you  need  not  suspect  any  deception  on 
your  feelings.  It  is  a  spectacle  of  horror  which  cannot 
be  overdri'wn.  If  you  have  nature  in  your  hearts,  they 
will  speak  a  language  compared  with  which  all  I  have  said 
or  can  say,  will  be  poor  and  frigid. 

Will  it  be  whispered  that  the  treaty  has  made  me  anew 
i:hampion  for  the  protection  o^  the  frontiers  ;  it  is  knowji 
th.  I  «  v  voice  as  well  as  vote  has  been  uniformly  given  in 
cor  fi.rnnt)  with  the  ideas  I  have  expressed.  Protection  is 
the  ight  oi  the  frontiers  ;  it  is  our  duly  to  give  it. 

V\  bo  will  accuse  me  of  wandering  out  of  the  subject? 
Wl  o  will  say  that  I  cx;iggerate  the  tendencies  of  our  mea- 
sure ?>  r  Will  ny  one  iinswer  by  a  sneer,  that  all  this  is  idle 
prri.ching  I  Would  any  one  deny  that  we  .;re  bound,  and  I 
vouio  hope  to  good  purpose, by  he  most  solemn  sanctions 
of  duty  for  the  vote  we  give  ?  Are  despots  alone  to  be  re- 
proached for  unfeeling  indifference  to  the  tears  and  blood 
f  i-hiir  subjects?  Are  republicans  unrt sponsible !  Have  the 
priiiciples  on  which  you  ground  the  r-  proach  upon  cabi- 
Dtts  and  kings  no  practicable  influence,  no  binding  force  ? 
Are  thty  merely  themes  of  idle  declamation,  introduced 
to  decorate  the  morality  of  a  newspaper  essay,  or  to  furnish 
pretty  topics  of  harangue  from  the  windows  of  that  state 
house?  I  trust  it  is  neither  too  presumptuous  nor  too  late 
Tc*  ask.  Can  you  put  the  dearest  interest  of  society  at  risk, 
ivithout  guilt,  and  without  remorse  ? 


SPEAKER.  505^ 

It  is  vain  to  offer  as  an  excuse,  that  public  men  are  not 
to  be  reproached  for  the  evils  that  may  happen  to  ensue 
from  their  measures.  This  is  very  true,  where  they  are 
unforeseen  or  inevitable.  Those  I  have  depicted  are  not 
unforeseen ;  they  are  so  far  from  inevitable,  we  are  going 
to  bring  them  into  being  by  our  vote.  We  choose  the  con- 
sequences, and  become  as  justly  answerable  for  them  as  for 
the  measure  that  we  know  will  produce  them. 

By  rejecting  the  posts,  we  light  the  savage  fires,  we  bind 
the  victims.  This  day  we  undertake  to  render  account  to 
the  widows  and  orphans  whom  our  decision  will  m.)ke,  to 
the  wretches  that  will  be  roasted  at  the  stake,  to  our  coun- 
try, and  I  do  not  derm  it  too  serious  to  say,  to  conscience 
and  to  God.  We  are  answerable  ;  and  if  duty  be  any 
thing  more  than  a  word  of  imposture,  if  conscience  be  not 
a  lougbear,  we  are  preparing  to  make  ourselves  as  wretch- 
ed as  our  country. 

There  is  no  mistake  in  this  case,  there  can  be  none. — 
Experience  has  JiVeady  been  the  prophet  of  events,  and 
the  ;.ries  of  our  future-  victims  have  already  reached  us. 
The  western  i(  h  »bit  mts  are  not  a  silent  and  uncomplain- 
ing sacrifice.  The  voice  of  humanity  issues  from  the 
shade  of  the  wilderness.  It  exclaims,  that  while  one 
hand  is  held  up  to  reject  this  treaty,  the  other  grasps  a 
tomahawk.  It  summons  our  imagination  to  the  scenes 
that  will  open.  It  is  no  great  effort  of  the  imagination  to 
conceive  that  events  so  near  are  already  be^un.  I  can 
fancy  that  I  listen  to  the  yells  of  savage  vengeance,  and 
the  shrieks  of  torture.  A  ready  they  seem  to  sigh  in  the 
west  wind  ;  already  they  mingle  with  every  echo  from  the 
mountains. 


BURR   AND  BLENNERHASSEET. 

F.xtractfrom  the  Speech  of  Mr.  Wirt  on  the  trial  of  Aaron 
Burr  for  High  Treason* 

A  plain  man  who  knew  nothing  of  the  curious  transmu- 
tations which  the  wit  of  man  can  work,  would  be  very  apt 
to  wonder  by  what  kind  ol  legerdemain  Aaron  Burr  had 
contrived  to  shuffle  himself  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 


3J6  AMERICAN 

pack  as  an  accessory,  and  turn  up  poor  Blennerhassett  as 
principal  in  this  treason.  It  is  an  honor,  I  dare  say,  for 
which  Mr,  Blennt  rhassett  is  by  no  means  anxious ;  one 
which,  he  has  never  disputed  with  colonel  Burr,  and 
which  I  am  persuaded,  he  would  be  as  little  inclined  to 
dispute  on  this  occasion,  as  on  any  other.  Since,  however, 
the  modesty  of  colonrl  Burr  declines  the  first  rank,  and 
seems  disposed  to  force  Mr.  Blennerhassett  mto  it  in  spite 
of  his  hlusht  s,  let  us  compare  the  cases  of  the  two  men 
and  settle  this  question  of  precedence  between  them.  It 
mav  save  a  good  deal  of  troublesome  ceremony  hereafter. 

In  m.^king  this  comparison,  sir,  I  shall  speak  of  the  two 
men  and  of  the  part  they  bore  as  I  believe  it  to  exist  and 
to  be  substantially  capable  of  proof:  although  the  court 
has  already  told  us,  that  as  this  is  a  motion  to  exclude  all 
evidence,  generally,  we  have  a  right,  in  resisting  it,  to  sup- 
pose the  evidence  which  is  behind,  strong  enough  to  prove 
any  thing  and  every  thing  compatible  with  the  fact  of 
Burr's  ab'-ence  from  the  isLmd.  If  it  will  be  more  agreea- 
ble to  the  feelings  of  the  prisoner  to  consider  the  parallel 
which  I  m  about  to  run,  or  rather  the  contrast  which  I 
am  about  to  exhibit,  as  a  fiction,  he  is  at  liberty  to  do  so  j 
I  Leiieve  it  to  be  a  fat. 

Who  then  is  Aaron  Burr,  and  what  the  part  which  he 
has  borne  in  this  transaction  ?  He  is  its  author;  its  pro- 
jei  tor  ;  its  active  executor.  Bold,  ard  nt,  restless  and  as- 
piring, his  brain  cone  ivid  it;  his  h  nd  brought  it  into  ac- 
tion. Beginning  his  (operations  in  N  vv  York,  he  associ- 
ates with  him,  men  whose  wealth  ;s  to  supply  the  nect.s- 
Si  r\  lunds.  Possessed  of  the  main  spring,  his  personal 
labour  contrives  nil  the  machinery.  Pervading  the  conti- 
nent from  Nt  w  York  to  New-Orleans,  he  draws  into  his 
plan  b\  every  allurement  which  he  can  contrive,  men  of 
all  ranks,  and  all  descriptions.  To  ycuthlul  ardour  he 
presents  danger  and  glory  ;  to  ambition,  rank  and  titles 
and  honors  ;  to  avarice  the  mines  of  Mexico.  To  e:tch 
person  whom  he  addr.  sses,  he  presents  the  object  adapted 
to  his  taste  :  his  recruiting  officers  are  appointed  ;  men 
are  engaged  throughout  the  continent ;  civil  life  is  indeed 
quiet  upon  its  surface ;  but  in  Us  bosom  this  man  has  con- 
trived to  deposit  the  m  teri.ds  which,  with  the  slightest 
touch  of  his  match  produces  an  explosion  to  shake  the  con- 


SPEAKER.  3B7 

Wnent.  All  this  his  restless  ambition  has  contrived  ;  and 
in  the  autumn  of  1806,  he  goes  forth  for  the  last  time,  to 
apply  this  match. — On  this  excursion  he  meets  with  Blen- 
nerhassett 

Who  is  Blennerhassett  ?  A  native  of  Ireland,  a  man  of 
letters,  who  fled  from  the  storms  of  his  own  country  to 
find  quiet  in  ours.  His  history  shews  that  war  is  not  the 
natural  element  of  his  mind;  if  it  had  been,  he  would 
never  have  exchanged  Ireland  for  America.  So  far  is  an 
army  from  furnishing  the  society  natural  and  proper  to 
Mr.  Blennerhassett's  character,  that  on  his  arrival  in  Ame- 
rica, he  retired  even  from  the  population  of  the  Atlantic 
states,  and  sought  quiet  and  solitude  in  the  bosom  of  our 
Western  forests.  But  he  carried  with  him  taste  and  science 
and  wealth  ;  and  "  lo,  the  desert  smiled."  Possessing 
himself  of  a  beautiful  island  in  the  Ohio,  he  rears  upon  it 
a  palace  and  decorates  it  with  every  romantic  embellish- 
ment of  fancy.  A  shrubbery  that  Shenstone  might  have 
envied,  blooms  around  him;  music  that  might  have  charm- 
ed Calypso  and  her  nymphs,  is  his  ;  an  extensive  library 
spreads  its  treasures  before  him  ;  a  philosophical  apparatus 
offers  to  him  all  the  secrets  and  mysteries  of  nature  ;  p.  ace, 
tranquillity  and  innocence  shed  their  mingled  delights 
around  him ;  and  to  crown  the  enchantment  of  the  scene, 
a  wife,  who  is  said  to  be  lovely  even  beyond  her  sex,  and 
graced  with  every  accomplishment  that  can  render  it  irre- 
sistible, had  blessed  him  with  her  love,  and  made  him  the 
father  of  her  children.  The  evidence  VfowXd  convince  you, 
sir,  that  this  is  but  a  faint  picture  of  the  real  life.  Ik\  the 
midst  of  all  this  peace,  this  innocence,  and  this  tranquilli- 
ty, this  feast  of  the  mind,  this  pure  banquet  of  the  heart-— 
the  destroyer  conies — he  comes  to  turn  this  paradise  into 
a  hell — yet  the  flowers  do  not  wither  at  his  approach  and 
no  monitory  shuddering  through  the  bosom  of  their  unfor- 
tunate possessor,  warns  him  of  the  ruin  that  is  coming  up- 
on him.  A  stranger  presents  hin.self.  Introduced  to  their 
civilities  by  the  high  rank  Nvhi(h  he  had  lately  held  in  his 
country,  he  soon  fmds  his  way  to  their  hearts  by  the  dig- 
nUy  and  elegance  of  his  demeanor,  the  light  and  beauty 
of  his  conversation,  and  the  seductive  and  fascinating 
power  of  his  address.  The  conquest  was  not  a  difficult 
one.     Innocence  is  ever  simple  and  credulous  ;  conscious 


35S  AMERICAN 

of  no  designs  itself,  it  suspects  none  in  others  ;  it  wears 
no  guards  before  its  breast ;  every  door  and  portal  and 
avenue  of  the  heart  is  thrown  open,  and  all  who  choose 
it  enter.  Such  was  the  state  of  Eden,  when  the  serpent 
entered  its  bowers.  The  prisoner  in  a  more  engaging 
form,  winding  himself  into  the  open  and  unpractised  heart 
of  the  unfortunate  Blennerhassett,  found  but  little  difficul- 
ty in  changing  the  native  character  of  that  heart  and  the 
objects  of  its  affection.  By  degrees  he  infuses  into  it  the 
poison  of  his  own  ambition  ;  he  breathes  into  it  the  fire  of 
his  own  courage;  a  daring  and  a  desperate  thirst  for  glo- 
ry ;  an  ardour  panting  for  all  the  storm  and  bustle  and 
hurricane  of  life.  In  a  short  time  the  whole  man  is  chang- 
ed, and  ever}  object  of  his  former  delight  relinquished. 
No  more  he  enjoys  the  tranquil  scene  :  it  has  become  flat 
and  insipid  to  his  taste  :  his  books  are  abandoned  :  his  re- 
tort and  crucible  are  thrown  aside :  his  shrubbery  blooms 
and  breaths  its  fragranca  upon  the  air  in  vain — he  likes  it 
not:  his  ear  no  longer  drinks  the  rich  melody  of  music ; 
it  longs  for  the  trumpet's  clangor,  and  the  cannon's  roar  ; 
even  the  prattle  of  his  babes,  once  so  sweet,  no  longer  af- 
fects him ;  and  the  angel  smile  of  his  wife,  which  hitherto 
touched  his  bosom  with  ecstacy  so  unspeakable,  is  now 
unfelt  and  unseen.  Greater  objects  have  taken  possession 
of  his  soul— his  imagination  has  been  dazzled  by  visions 
of  diadems,  and  stars  and  garters  and  titles  of  nobility : 
he  has  been  taught  to  burn  with  restless  emulation  at  the 
names  of  Cromwell,  Csesar,  and  Buonaparte.  His  en- 
chanted island  is  destined  soon  to  relapse  into  a  desert ; 
and  in  a  few  months,  we  find  the  tender  and  beautiful 
partner  of  his  bosom,  whom  he  lately  "  permitted  not  the 
winds  of"  summer  *'  to  visit  too  roughly"  we  find  her 
shivering,  at  midnight,  on  the  winter  banks  of  the  Ohio, 
and  minglmg  her  tears  with  the  torrents  that  froze  as  they 
fell.  Yet  this  unfortunate  man,  thus  deluded  from  his  in- 
terest and  h.s  happiness — thus  seduced  from  the  paths  of 
innocence  and  peace — thus  confounded  in  the  toils  which 
were  deliberately  spread  for  him,  and  overwhelmed  by 
the  mastering  spirit  and  genius  of  another — this  man, 
thus  ruined  and  undone,  and  made  to  play  a  subordinate 
part  in  this  grand  drama  of  guilt  and  treason — this  man  is 
to  be  called  the  principle  offender;  while  he,  by  whOin  he 


I 


SPEAKER.  5S9 

was  thus  plunged  and  steeped  in  misery,  is  comparatively 
innocent — a  mere  accessory.  Sir,  neither  the  human  heart 
nor  the  human  understanding  will  bear  a  perversion  so 
monstrous  and  absurd  ;  so  shocking  to  the  soul ;  so  revolt- 
ing to  reason.  O  !  no  Sir.  There  is  no  man  who  knows  any 
thing  of  this  affair,  who  does  not  know  that  to  every  body 
concerned  in  it,  Aaron  Burr  was  as  the  sun  to  the  planets 
which  surround  him  ;  he  bound  them  in  their  respective 
orbits,  and  gave  them  their  light,  their  heat  and  their  mo- 
tion. Let  him  not  then  shrink  from  the  high  destination 
which  he  has  courted  ;  and  having  already  ruined  Blen- 
nerhassett  in  fortune,  character  and  happiness  forever,  at- 
tempt to  finish  the  tragedy  by  thrusting  that  ill-fated  man 
between  himself  and  punishment. 


Extract  from  a?i  Oration  delivered  by  Richard  Rush  Esqr, 
at  Wash'mgton  City^  July  Mh^  1812. 

The  seizure  of  the  persons  of  American  citizens  under 
the  name  and  the  pretexts  of  impressment,  by  the  naval  of- 
ficers of  Great  Britain,  is  an  outrage  of  that  kind  which 
makes  it  difficult  to  speak  of  it  m  t  rms  of  appropriate  des- 
crip  jon  ;  for  this,  among  other  reasons,  that  the  offence  it- 
self is  new.  It  is  probable  that  the  most  ci^reful  research- 
es into  history,  where  indeed  of  almost  every  form  of  ra- 
pine between  men  and  between  nations  is  to  be  found  the 
melancholy  record,  will  yet  afford  no  example  of  the  sys- 
tematic perpetration  of  an  offence  of  a  similar  nature,  per- 
petrated, too,  undrr  a  claim  of  right.  To  take  a  just  and 
no  other  than  a  serious  illustration,  the  only  parallel  to  it 
is  to  be  found  in  the  African  slave  trade ;  and  if  an  emi- 
nent statesman  of  England  once  spoke  of  the  latter,  as  the 
greatest  practical  evil  that  had  ever  affl  cted  mankind,  we 
may  be  allowed  to  denominate  the  former  ihe  greatest 
practical  offence  that  has  ever  been  offered  to  a  civilized 
and  mdependent  state. 

Under  a  mere  personal  view  of  this  outrage,  and  con- 
sid  ring  it  on  the  footing  of  a  moral  sin,  it  is  strictly  like 
the  African  slave  trade.  Like  that  it  breaks  up  fami  ies 
and  causes  hearts  lo bleed.  Like  that  it  tears  th.  son  irom 
the  father,  the  father  from  the  son.     Like  that  it  tnakes 


360  AMERICAN 

orphans  and  widows,  takes  the  brother  from  the  sister, 
seizes  up  the  young  man  in  the  heaUh  of  his  days  and 
blasts  his  hopes  forever.  It  is  worse  than  the  slavery  of 
the  African,  for  the  African  is  only  made  to  work  under 
the  lash  of  a  task  master,  whereas  the  citizen  of  the  Unit- 
ed States,  thus  enslaved,  receives  also  the  lash  on  the 
slightest  lapses  from  a  rigorous  discipline,  and  is  more- 
over exposed  to  the  bitter  fate  of  fighting  against  those  to- 
wards whom  he  has  no  hostility,  perhaps  his  own  coun- 
trymen— it  may  be,  his  own  immediate  kindred.  This  is 
not  exaggeration,  feilovv-citizens,  it  is  reality  and  fact. 

But,  say  the  British,  we  want  not  your  men  ;  we  want 
only  our  own.  Prove  that  they  are  yours  and  we  will 
surrender  them  up.  Baser  outrage  !  insolent  indignity  ! 
that  a  free  born  American  must  be  made  to  prove  his  na- 
tivity to  those  who  have  previouly  violated  his  liberty, 
else  he  is  to  be  held  forever  as  a  slave  !  That  before  a 
British  tribunal — a  British  boarding  officer — a  free-born 
American  must  be  made  to  seal  up  the  vouchers  of  his 
lineage,  to  exhibit  the  records  of  his  baptism  and  his 
birth,  to  establish  the  identity  that  binds  him  to  his  pa- 
rents, to  his  blood,  to  his  native  land,  by  setting  forth  in 
odious  detail  his  size,  his  age,  the  shape  of  his  frame, 
whether  his  hair  is  long  or  crept — his  marks — like  an  ox 
or  a  horse  of  the  monger — that  all  this  must  be  done  as 
the  condition  of  his  escape  from  the  galling  thraldom  of 
a  British  ship!  Can  we  hear  it,  can  we  think  of  it,  with 
any  other  than  indignant  feelings  at  our  tarnished  name 
and  nation  ?  And  suppose  through  this  degrading  pro- 
cess his  deliverance  to  be  effected,  where  is  he  to  seek  re- 
dress for  the  intermediate  wrong  t  The  unauthorised  sci- 
sure  and  detention  ot  any  piece  of  property,  a  mere  tres- 
pass upon  goods,  will  always  lay  the  foundation  for  some, 
often  the  heaviest  retribution,  in  every  well-regulated  so- 
ciety. But  to  whom,  or  when,  shall  our  imprisoned  ci- 
tizen, when  the  privilege  of  shaking  off  his  fetters  has  at 
last  been  accorded  to  him,  turn  for  his  redress  ?  where 
look  to  rrimburse  the  stripes,  perhaps  the  wounds  he  has 
received — his  worn  spirit — his  long  inward  agonies  ?  No, 
the  public  >  ode  of  nations  recognizes  not  the  penalty,  for 
to  the  modern  rapuciousness  of  Britain  it  was  reserved  to 


SPEAKER.  3.61 

add  to  the  dark  catalogue  of  human  sufferings,  this  flagi- 
tious crime. 

But  why  be  told  that,  even  on  such  proofs,  our  citizens 
will  be  released  from  their  captivity  ?  We  have  long  and 
sorely  experienced  the  impracticable  nature  of  this  boon, 
which,  in  the  imagined  relaxation  of  her  deep  injustice, 
she  would  affect  to  hold  out.  Go  to  the  office  of  the  De- 
partment of  State,  within  sight  of  where  we  are  assem- 
bled, and  there  see  the  piles  of  certificates  and  documents, 
of  affidavits,  records  and  seals,  anxiously  drawn  out  and 
folded  up — to  show  why  Americans  should  not  be  held 
as  slaves — and  see  how  diey  rest,  and  will  forever  rest,  in 
hopeless  neglect  upon  the  shelves.  Some  defect  in  form, 
some  impossibility  of  filling  up  all  the  crevices  which  Bri- 
tish exaction  insists  upon  being  closed  ;  the  uncertainty, 
if,  after  all,  they  will  ever  reach  their  point  of  destination., 
the  climate  or  the  sea  where  the  hopes  of  gain  or  the  lust 
of  conquest  are  impelling,  through  constant  changes,  their 
ships  ;  the  probability  that  the  miserable  individual  to 
whom  they  are  intended  as  the  harbinger  of  liberation 
from  his  shackles,  may  have  been  translated  from  the  first 
scene  of  his  incarceration  to  another,  from  a  seventy-four 
to  a  sixty-four,  from  a  sixty-four  to  a  frigate,  and  thus 
through  rapid,  if  not  designed,  mutations,  a  practice 
which  is  known  to  exist — these  are  obvious  causes  of  dis- 
couriigement,  by  making  the  issue  at  all  times  doubtful, 
most  frequently  hopeless.  And  this  Great  Britain  cannot 
but  know.  She  does  know  it,  and,  v/ith  deliberate  niockeryj 
in  the  composure  with  which  bloated  power  can  scoff  at 
submissive  and  humble  suffering,  has  she  continued  to  in- 
crease and  protract  our  humiliation  as  well  as  our  suffer- 
ing, by  renewals  of  the  visionary  offer. 

Again  it  is  said,  that  our  citizens  resemble  their  men, 
look  like  them  in  their  persons,  speak  the  same  language, 
that  discriminations  are  difficult  ind  impracticable,  and 
therefore  it  is  they  are  unavoidably  seized.  Most  insult- 
ing excuse  !  And  will  they  impeach  that  God  who  equal- 
ly made  us  both  ?  who  forms  our  features,  moulds  our 
statures  and  stamps  us  with  a  countenance  that  turns  up 
to  his  goodness  in  adoration  and  love  !  Impious  as  w, .;  as 
insulting  !  The  leopard  cannot  change  his  spois  or  th  •  E- 
thiopian  his  skin,  but  xvey  ive^  are  to  put  off  our  bodies 

I  I 


562  AMERICAN 

and  become  unlike  ourselves  as  the  price  of  our  safety  ! 
Why  should  similarity  of  face  yoke  us  exclusively  with  an 
Ignominious  burden  ?  why,  because  we  were  once  descend- 
ed from  them,  should  we  be  made  at  this  day,  and  forev- 
er, to  clank  chains  ?  Suppose  one  of  their  subjects  landed 
upon  our  shores — let  us  suppose  him  a  prince  of  their 
blood — shall  we  seize  upon  him  to  mend  our  highways, 
shall  we  draft  hbn  for  our  ranks  ?  shall  we  subject  him  in 
an  instant  to  all  the  civil  burthens  of  duty,  of  taxation,  of 
every  species  of  aid  and  service  that  grow  out  of  the  alle- 
giance of  the  citizen,  until  he  can  send  across  the  ocean 
for  the  registers  of  his  family  and  birth  ?  What  has  her 
foul  spirit  of  impressment  to  answer  to  this  ?  Why  not  e- 
qually  demand  on  our  part  that  every  one  of  her  factors 
who  lands  upon  our  soil  should  bring  a  protection  in  his 
pocket,  or  hang  one  round  his  neck,  as  the  price  of  his 
safety  ?  If  this  plea  of  monstrous  outrage  be,  only  for  one 
instant,  admitted,  remember,  fellow  citizens,  that  it  be- 
comes as  lasting  as  monstrous.  If  our  children,  and  our 
children's  children,  and  their  children,  continue  to  spe^k 
the  same  tongue,  to  hold  the  same  port  with  their  fathers, 
they  also  will  be  liable  to  this  enslavement,  and  the  groan- 
ing evil  be  co-existent  with  British  power,  British  rapa- 
city, and  the  maxim  that  the  British  navy  must  have 
wen  !  If  our  men  are  like  theirs,  it  should  form,  to  any 
other  than  a  nation  callous  to  justice,  dead  to  the  moral 
sense,  and  deliberately  bent  upon  plunder,  the  very  reason 
why  they  should  give  up  the  practice,  seeing  that  it  is  in- 
trinsically liable  to  these  mistakes,  and  that  the  exercise 
of  what  they  call  a  right  on  their  part  necessarily  brings 
with  it  certain,  eternal,  and  the  most  high-handed  wrongs 
to  us. 

I  am  a  Roman  citizen,  I  am  a  Roman  citizen !  was  an 
exclamation  that  insured  safety,  commanded  respect,  or 
inspired  terror  in  all  parts  ol  the  world.  And  although 
the  mild  temper  of  our  government  exacts  not  all  these 
attributes,  we  may,  at  least,  be  suffered  to  deplore  with 
hearts  of  agouy  and  shame,  that  while  the  inhabitants  of 
every  other  part  of  the  globe  enjoy  an  immunity  from  the 
seizure  of  their  peibt^ns,  except  under  the  late  of  war,  or 
by  acknov.'iedged  pir.ius — even  ihe  wretched  Africans  of 
late-— to  be  an  American  citizen  has,  for  five  and  twenty 


SPEAKER.  363 

years,  been  the  signal  for  insult  and  the  passport  to  capti- 
ty.  Let  it  not  be  replied  that  the  men  they  take  from  us 
are  sometimes  not  of  a  character  or  description  to  attract 
the  concern  or  interposition  of  the  government.  If  they 
were  all  so^  it  lessens  in  no  wise  the  enormity  of  the  out- 
rage. It  adds  indeed  a  fresh  indignity  to  nention  it.  The 
sublime  equalitv  of  justice  recognizes  no  such  distinctions, 
and  a  government  founded  upon  the  great  basis  of  equal 
right,  would  forget  one  of  its  fundamental  duties,  if  in  the 
exercise  of  its  protecting:  power  it  admits  to  a  foreign  na- 
tion the  least  distinction  between  what  it  owes  to  the  low- 
est and  meanest,  and  the  highest  and  most  exalted  of  its 
citizens. 

Sometimes  it  is  said  that  but  Jeiv  of  our  seamen  are  in 
reality  seized  !  Progressive  and  foul  aggravation  !  to  ad- 
mit the  crime  to  our  faces  and  seek  to  screen  its  atrocity 
under  its  limited  extent.  Whence  but  from  a  source  hard- 
ened with  long  rapine,  could  such  a  palliation  flow  ?  It  is 
false.  The  files  of  that  same  department,  its  melancholy 
memorials,  attest  that  there  are  thousands  of  our  country- 
men at  this  moment  in  slavery  in  their  ships.  And  if 
there  were  but  one  hundred,  if  there  were  but  fifty,  if 
there  were  but  ten — if  there  were  but  one,  how  dare  they 
insult  a  sovereign  nation  with  such  an  answer  ?  Shall  1  state 
to  you  a  fact,  ftUow-citizens,  that  will  be  sufficient  to  rouse 
not  simply  your  indignation,  but  your  horror,  and  would 
that  I  could  speak  it  at  this  moment  to  the  whole  nation., 
that  every  American  who  has  a  heart  to  be  inflamed  with 
honest  resentment  might  hear  ; — a  fact  that  shows  all  the 
excess  of  shame  that  should  flush  our  faces  at  submission 
to  an  outrage  so  foul.  I  state  to  you,  upon  the  highest 
and  most  unquestionable  authority,  that  two  of  the  nephews 
of  your  immortal  Washington  have  been  seized,  dragged, 
made  slaves  of  on  board  of  a  British  ship  !  Will  it  be  cre- 
dited ?  It  is  nevertheless  true.  They  were  kept  in  slave- 
ry more  than  a  year,  and  as  the  transactions  of  your  go- 
vernment will  show,  were  restored  to  their  liberty  only  a 
few  months  since.*     How,  Americans,  can  you  sit  down 

*  They  were  the  sons  of  the  late  Fielding-  Lewis,  of  Virg-inia,  who 
was  imme.hate  nephew  to  General  Washington:  for  all  which  see  llie 
papers  on  file  in  llie  oiEce  of  the  Secretary,  of  StiUe. 


564  AMERICAN 

under  such  indigrjities  ?  To  which  of  their  priaces,  which 
of  their  nobles,  to  which  of  their  ministers  or  which  of 
their  regents,  will  you  allow,  in  the  just  pride  of  men  and 
of  freemen,  that  those  who  stand  in  consanguinity  to  the 
illustrious  founder  of  your  liberties,  are  second  in  all  their 
claims  to  safety  and  protection  ?  But  we  must  leave  the 
odious  subject.  It  swells  indeed  with  ever  fruitful  ex- 
pansion, to  the  indignant  view,  but  while  it  animates  it  is 
loathsome.  If  the  English  say  it  is  mertly  an  abuse  inci- 
dent to  a  right  on  their  part,  besides  denying  forever  the 
foundation  of  such  right  where  it  goes  to  the  presumptuous 
entry  of  our  own  vessels  with  their  armed  men,  shall  we 
tolerate  its  exercise  for  an  instant  when  manifestly  attend- 
ed with  such  a  practical,  unceasing,  and  enormous  oppres- 
sion upon  ourselves  ? 

This  crime  of  impressment  may  justly  be  considered — 
posterity  will  so  consider  it — as  transcending  the  amount 
of  all  the  other  wrongs  we  have  received.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  millions  v/hich  the  cupidity  of  Britain  has  wrested 
from  us,  the  millions  which  the  cupidity  of  France  has 
v>' rested  from  us,  including  the  wicked  burnings  of  our 
^hips — adding  also  the  wrongs  from  Spain  and  Denmark 
— fhe  sum  of  all  should  be  estimated  below  this  enormity. 
Ships  and  merchandise  belong  to  individuals,  and  may 
be  valued  ;  may  be  endured  as  subjects  of  negotiation. 
But  mc7i  are  the  property  of  the  nation.  In  every  Ameri- 
can face  a  part  of  our  country's  sovereignty  is  written.  It 
is  the  living  emblem — a  thousand  times  more  sacred  than 
the  nation's  flag  itself — of  its  character,  its  independence 
Lind  its  rights — its  quick  and  most  dearly  cherished  insig- 
nium — towards  which  the  nation  should  ever  demand  the 
most  scrupulous  and  inviolable  immunity,  being  instantly 
sensitive  under  the  flagrant  indignity  of  the  slightest  in- 
fringement of  its  beaming,  vivid,  attributes  of  sovereign- 
ty !  Man  was  created  in  his  Maker's  own  image — "  in  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him."  When  he  is  made  a  slave, 
where  shall  there  be  reimbursement?  No,  fellow-citizens, 
under  the  assistance  and  protection  of  the  Most  High,  the 
evil  must  be  stopped.  His  own  im.age  must  not  be  enslaved. 
It  was  deservedly  the  first  enumerated  of  our  grievances 
in  the  late  solemn  message  from  the  first  magistrate  of 
our  land ;  on  the  eighteenth  of  June  of  this  memorable 


SPEAKER.   '  36^ 

year  we  appealed  to  the  sword  and  to  Heaven  against  it,  and 
we  shall  be  wanting  to  ourselves,  to  our  posterit\  — we  shall 
never  stand  erect  in  our  sovereignty  as  a  nation  if  we  re- 
turn it  to  the  scabbard  until  such  an  infamy  and  a  curse 
are  finally  and  effectually  removed.  The  blessings  of  peace 
itself  become  a  curse,  a  foul  curse,  while  such  a  stain  is 
permitted  to  rest  upon  our  annals,  Neve-r,  henceforth, 
must  American  ships  be  converted  mto  worse  than  butch- 
er*s  shambles  for  the  inspection  and  seizure  of  human 
flesh  !  We  would  appeal  to  the  justice  and  humanity  of 
their  own  statesmen,  claim  the  interference  of  ther  Wil- 
berforces — invoke  the  spirit  of  th.  ir  departed  Fox — call 
upon  all  among  diem  who  nobly  succeeded  in  th  ir  l(jng 
struggles  against  the  African  slave  trade,  to  stand  up  and 
retrieve  the  British  name  from  the  equal  odium  of  this 
offence. 

If  it  be  true  that  injuries  long  acquiesced  in  lose  the 
power  of  exciting  sensibility,  it  may  be  remarked,  in  con- 
clusion of  this  Kiteful  subject  how  forcibly  verified  it  is  in 
the  instance  of  robbing  us  of  our  citiscns.  When  it  hap- 
pens that  some  of  them  are  surrendered  up,  c?i  examma- 
thn  and  allowance  of  the  proofs^  it  is  not  unusual  to  advert  ta 
ii  as  an  indication  of  the  justice  and  generosity  of  the  Bri- 
tish !  The  very  act,  which,  to  an  abstract  judgment,  should 
l)e  taken  as  stamping  a  seal  upon  the  outrage,  by  the  ac- 
knowledgment it  implies  from  themselves  of  the  atrocity, 
because  the  unhnvfulness  of  the  seizure,  is  thus  converted 
into  a  medium  of  homage  and  of  praise  !  Inverted  patriot- 
ism !  drooping,  downcctst  honor!  to  derive  a  pleasurable 
sensation  from  the  insulting  confession  of  a  crime ! 

Next  to  a  just  war,  fellow-citizens,  we  wage  a  defensive 
one.  This  is  its  true  and  only  character.  Our  fields  were 
not,  indeed,  invaded,  or  our  towns  entered  and  sacked* 
But  still  it  is  purely  a  war  of  defence.  It  was  to  stop  re- 
iterated encroachments  we  took  up  arms.  Persons,  pro- 
perty, rights,  character,  sovereignty,  justice,  all  these  were 
contumaciously  invaded  at  our  hands.  Let  impartial  truth 
say,  if  it  were  for  ambition,  or  conquest,  or  plunder,  or 
through  any  false  estimate  of  character,  or  pride  vfe  ap- 
pealecl  to  the  sword.  No,  Americans  !  No  !  Republicans,, 
there  will  rest  no  such  blot  upon  your  moderate,  your  pa- 
cific councils.     It  is  an  imperfect  view  of  this  c^uestitosa 

1  J  2 


366  AMERICAN 

which  takes  as  a  defensive  war,  only  that  v/hlch  is  entered 
upon  when  the  assailant  is  bursting  through  your  doors 
and  levelling  the  musket  at  the  bosoms  of  your  women 
and  children.  Think  how  a  nation  may  he  abridged,  may 
be-  disnuuitled  of  its  rights,  may  be  cut  down  in  its  liber- 
ties, this  side  of  an  open  attack.  The  Athenian  law  pu- 
nished seduction  of  female  honor  more  severely  than  it 
did  force.  And  the  nation  that  would  adopt  it  as  a  max- 
im to  lie  by  under  whatever  curtailments  of  its  sove- 
reignty, resolving  upon  no  resistance  until  the  actual  in- 
vestment of  its  soil,  might  find  itself  too  fatally  trenched 
upon,  too  exhausted  in  resources,  or  too  enfeebled  in  spirit, 
to  rouse  itself  when  the  foe  was  rushing  through  the  gates. 

The  war  whoop  of  the  Indian  had  indeed  been  heard 
in  the  habitations  of  our  frontier;  and  it  is  impossible  to 
abstain  from  imputing  to  the  agency  of  our  enemy  this 
horrid  species  of  invasion.  Their  hand  must  be  in  it.  For 
although  it  may  not  be  directly  instigated  by  thtir  govern- 
ment on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  yet  past  prools  make 
It  to  the  last  degree  probable  that  the  intrigues  of  their 
sub-agents  in  the  Canadas  are  instrumental  to  the  wicked- 
ness. Nor  will  a  rational  mind  hesitate  to  infer  that  the 
same  spirit  which,  from  that  quarter  at  least,  could  send, 
for  the  most  nefarious  purposes,  a  polished  spy  through 
our  cities,  would  also,  varying  the  form  of  its  iniquity, 
let  loose  upon  us  the  hatchet  and  the  scalping  knife. 
Great  Britain  indeed  had  not  declared  war  against  us  in 
fcrm^  but  she  had  made  it  upon  us  infact^  She  had  plun- 
dered us  of  our  property,  she  had  imprisoned  our  citi- 
zens ;  nor  can  any  accommodation  nov/  erase  from  our 
memories,  although  it  may  from  our  public  discussions, 
the  bloodv  iriemcrials  of  her  attack  upon  the  Chesapeake- 

Since,  fellow-citizens,  that  through  all  these  motives  a 
war  v;ith  Britain  has  been  cast  upon  us,  while  bearing  up 
against  whatever  of  pressure  it  may  bring  with  the  energy 
and  the  hope  of  our  fathers,  let  us  deduce  also  this  of  con^ 
folation  ;  that  it  will,  more  than  any  thing  else,  have  a  ten 
dcncv  to  break  the  sway  which  that  nation  is  enabled  to 
liokl  over  us.  I  v/ould  address  myself  on  this  point  to  the 
candid  mKids  of  our  countrymen,  and  to  all  such  among 
them  as  have  bosoms  penetrated  v/ith  a  genuine  love  for 
our  republican  systems.     We  form,  probably  for  the  firs* 


SPEAKER.  367 

time  in  all  history,  the  instance  of  a  nation  descended,  and 
politically  detached  from  another,  but  still  keeping  up  the 
most  intimate  connexions  with  the  original  and  once  pa- 
rent stock.  The  similarity  of  our  manners  and  customs; 
our  language  being  one,  and  our  religion  nearly  one  ;  the 
entire  identity  in  individual  appearance,  and  in  all  things 
else,  which  is  spread  before  the  American  and  the  Eng- 
lish eye;  our  boundless  social  intercommunication;  the 
very  personal  respectability,  in  so  many  instances,  of  those 
of  that  nation  who,  in  such  numbers,  come  to  this  ;  pecu- 
niary connexions  so  universal  and  unlimited  ;  dependent 
upon  her  loom,  dependent  upon  her  fashions,  dependent 
upon  her  judicature,  dependent  upon  her  drama — reading 
none  but  her  books,  or  scarcely  any  others;  taking  up  her 
character  and  actions  chiefly  at  the  hands  of  her  own  an- 
nalists or  panegyrists  ;  nothing  in  fine  that  comes  from 
that  quarter  being  regarded  as  foreign,  but  as  well  her  in- 
habitants as  her  modes  of  life  and  all  her  usagt  s,  being 
taken  to  be  as  of  our  own — these  complicated  similitudes 
operate  like  cramps  and  holdings  to  bind  us  insensibly  to 
her  sides,  yielding  to  her  an  easy,  an  increasing,  and  an 
unsuspected  ascendenc}'. 

It  may  be  said  this  is  an  advantageous  ascendency  ;  that 
as  a  young  people,  we  may  profit  of  the  Intimacy,  have  her 
arts  and  her  manners,  copy  her  many  melic^rations  of  ex- 
isteiice,  eat  of  her  intellectual  fod  and  get  stamina  the 
more  quickly  upon  its  nourishment.  But  stop  Ameri- 
cans !  do  you  not  know  that  this  same  people  are  the  sub- 
jects of  an  old  and  luxurious  monarchy,  with  all  the  cor- 
rupt attachments  to  which  it  leads;  that  if  not  their  duty, 
it  is  naturally  their  practice  to  breathe  the  praise  and  in- 
culcate the  love  of  their  own  forms  of  polity.  Do  you  not 
know,  that  if  not  the  correlative  dutv,  it  is,  as  certainly, 
their  correlative  practice,  to  deal  out  disapprobation,  even 
contempt  for  our  own,  and  the  habits  which  alone  they 
should  superinduce?  And  is  there  not  cause  for  apprehen- 
sion that  the  superiority  which  we  so  easily,  often  so  slav- 
ishly, choose  tj  yield  her  on  all  other  points — that  the  mo- 
ral prostration  in  which  we  consent  to  fall  before  her  foot- 
3tool — may  also  trench  upon  the  reverence  due  to  our  own 
public  institutions,  producing  results  at  which  all  our  fears 
should  startle  ?  If,  fellow-citizens,  our  freedom,  our  repub- 


368  AMERICAN 

lican  freedom,  which,  to  make  lasting,  we  should  cherish 
with  uninterrupted  constancy  and  the  purt'st  love,  has  a 
foe  more  deadly  than  any  other,  it  is  probably  this  ;  this  is 
the  destroying  spirit  which  can  make  its  way  slowly  and 
unperceived,  but  surely  and  fatally.  If  we  stood  farther 
ofl" — much  farther  off — from  Britain,  we  should  still  be 
near  enough  to  derive  all  that  she  has  valuable,  while  we 
should  be  more  safe  from  the  poison  of  her  political  touch. 
Just  as,  at  this  day,  we  can  draw  upon  the  repositories  of 
genius  and  literature  among  the  ancients,  while  we  escape 
the  vices  of  paganism  and  the  errors  of  their  misleading 
philosophy.  But  if  Athenian  citizens  filled  our  towns;  if 
we  spoktt  their  language,  wore  their  dress,  took  them  to 
our  homes  ;  if  we  kept  looking  up  to  them  with  general 
imitfition  and  subserviency,  the  truths  of  Christianity 
themselves  would  be  in  danger  of  yielding  to  the  adora- 
tion of  the  false  gods! 

This  wiir  may  produce,  auspiciously  and  forever  the 
effect  of  throwmg  us  at  a  safer  distance  from  so  contami- 
nating an  intimacy,  making  our  liberty  thrive  more  se- 
curely, and  ourselves  more  independent — privately  and 
politically.  Froiu  no  other  nation  are  we  in  danger  in  the 
same  way  ;  for,  with  no  other  nation  have  we  the  same 
affinities,  but,  on  the  contrary,  numerous  points  of  repul- 
sion that  interpose  as  our  guard.  Let  us  have  a  shy  con- 
nexicm  with  them  all,  for  history  gives  the  admonition, 
that  for  the  last  twenty  years,  every  nation  of  the  world 
that  has  come  too  close  in  friendship  with  either  our  pre- 
sent en<.m}-,  or  her  neighbour,  the  ferocious  giant  of  the 
land,  has  lost  its  liberties,  been  prostrated,  or  been  ravag- 
ed. After  the  war  of  our  revolution,  we  ^vere  still  so 
much  in  the  feebleness  of  youth  as  to  take  the  out- 
stretched hand  of  Britain,  who  could  establish  our  in- 
dustry, shape  our  occupations,  and  give  them,  involunta- 
rily to  ourselves,  the  direction  advantageous  to  her  views. 
But,  henceforth,  we  shall  stand  upon  a  pedestal  whose  base 
is  fixed  among  ourselves,  whence  we  may  proudly  look 
around  and  afar — from  the  ocean  to  the  mountains,  from 
the  mountains  to  the  farthest  west,  beholding  our  fruitful 
fields,  listening  to  the  hammer  of  our  work-shops,  the 
cheerful  noise  of  our  looms: — where  the  view,  on  all 
sides,  of  native  numbers,  opulence  and  skill,  will  enable 


SPEAKER.  3(59 

us  to  stamp  more  at  pleasure  the  future  destinies  of  our 
happy  land.  Possibly,  also,  the  sameness  of  our  pursuits 
in  so  many  things,  with  Britain,  instead  of  pointing  to 
close  connexions  with  her,  as  her  politicians  so  steadily 
hold  up,  will  at  length  indicate  to  the  foresight  of  our  own 
statesmen  unalteuable  reasons  to  an  intercourse  more  re- 
strained— it  may  be  the  elements  of  a  lasting  rivalship. 

Animated  by  all  the  motives  which  demand  and  justify 
this  contest,  let  us  advance  to  it  with  resolute  and  high 
beating  hearts,  supported  by  the  devotion  to  our  beloved 
country,  which  wishes  for  her  triumphs  cannot  fail  to  kin- 
dle. Dear  to  us  is  this  beloved  country,  far  dearer  than 
we  can  express,  for  all  the  true  blessings  that  flourish 
within  her  bosom  ;  the  country  of  our  fathers,  the  country 
of  our  children,  the  scene  of  our  dearest  affections — 
whose  rights  and  liberties  have  been  const  crated  by  the 
blood  whose  current  runs  so  fresh  in  our  own  veins.  Who 
shall  touch  such  a  country,  and  not  fire  the  patriotism  and 
unsheath  the  swords  of  us  all?  No,  Americans  !  while  you 
reserve  your  independent  privilege  of  rendering,  at  all 
times,  your  suffrages  as  you  please,  let  our  proud  foe  be 
undeceived.  Let  her,  let  tht  world  learn,  now  and  for- 
ever, that  the  voice  of  our  nation,  when  once  legitimately 
expressed,  is  holy — is  imperious!  that  it  is  a  summons  of 
duty  to  every  citizen  ;  that  v/hen  we  strike  at  a  foreign 
foe,  the  sacred  bond  of  country  becomes  the  pledge  of  a 
concentrated  effort ;  that  in  such  a  cause,  and  at  such  a 
crisis,  we  feel  but  one  heart  and  strike  with  our  whole 
strength  !  We  are  the  only  nation  in  the  world,  fellow-citi- 
zens, where  the  people  and  the  government  stand,  in  all 
things,  identified;  where  all  the  acts  of  the  latter  are  im- 
mediately submitted  to  the  superior  revision  of  the  for- 
mer; where  every  blow  at  the  general  safety  becomes  the 
personal  concern  of  each  individual.  Happy  people,  hap- 
py government!  will  you  give  up,  will  3  ou  not  defend, 
such  blessings  ?  We  are  also  perhaps  the  only  genuine  re- 
public which,  since  the  days  of  the  ancients,  has  taken  up 
arms  against  a  foreign  foe  in  defence  of  its  rights  and  its 
liberties.  Animating  thought !  warmed  with  the  fire  of 
ancient  freedom,  may  we  not  expect  to  see  the  valor  of 
Thermopylae  and  Marathon  again  displayed  !  The  Con- 
gress of  eighteen  hundred  and  tv/elve,  here,  within  these 


Sro  AMERICAN 


august  walls,  have  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  other  feel- 
ings than  those  of  servility,  avarice,  or  fear,  pervade  the 
American  bosom  ;  that  in  the  hope  and  purity  of  youth. 
We  are  not  debased  by  the  passions  of  a  corrupt  old  age ; 
that  our  sensibilities  are  other  than  sordid  ;  that  we  are 
ambitious  of  the  dignified  port  of  freemen  ;  that  while  pa- 
cific we  know  the  value  of  national  rights  and  national  jus- 
tice, and  with  the  spirit  due  to  our  lasting  prosperity  as  a 
republic,  design  to  repel  authenticated  outrages  upon  ei- 
ther. That  we  will  and  dare  act  as  becomes  a  free,  an  en- 
lightened, and  a  brave  people.  Illustrious  Congress!  wor- 
thy to  have  your  names  recounted  with  the  illustrious  fa- 
thers of  our  revolution !  for  what  grievances  were  those 
that  led  to  the  great  act  which  made  us  a  nation,  that  have 
not  been  equalled,  shall  I  say  have  not  been  surpassed,  by 
those  which  moved  to  your  deed  ?  and  what  noble  hazards 
did  they  encounter  which  you  ought  not  to  brave ! 

If  we  are  not  fully  prepared  for  war,  let  the  sublime 
spectacle  be  soon  exhibited,  that  a  free  and  a  valiant  na- 
tion, with  our  numbers,  and  a  just  cause,  is  always  a  pow- 
erful nation  ;  is  always  ready  to  defend  its  essential  rights  ! 
The  Congress  of '76  declared  Independence  and  hurled  de- 
fiance at  this  same  insatiate  foe,  six  and  thirty  years  ago, 
with  an  army  of  seventeen  thousand  hostile  troops  just 
landed  upon  our  shores  ;  and  shall  we  no%v  hesitate  ?  shall 
vre  bow  our  necks  in  submission,  shall  we  make  an  igno- 
minious surrender  of  our  birthright  under  the  plea  that 
we  are  not  prepared  to  defend  it  t  No,  Americans  !  Yours 
has  been  a  pacific  republic,  and  therefore  has  not  exhibit- 
ed military  preparation ;  but  it  is  a  free  republic,  and 
therefore  will  it  now,  as  before,  soon  command  batta- 
lions, discipline,  courage  !  Could  a  general  of  old  by  only 
stamping  on  the  earth  raise  up  armies,  and  shall  a  whole 
nation  ot  freemen,  at  such  a  time,  know  not  where  to  look 
for  them  ?  The  soldiers  of  Bunker's  hill,  the  soldiers  of 
Bennington,  the  soldiers  of  the  Wabash,  the  seamen  of 
Tripoli  contradict  it! 

By  one  of  the  surviving  patriots  of  our  revolution 
have  been  told,  that  in  the  Congress  of  1774,  among  other 
arguments  used  to  prevent  a  war,  and   separation  from 
Great  Britain,  the  danger  of  having  our  towns  battered 
down  ^nd  burnt  was   zealousy  urged.     The   venerable 

I 


)f 


SPEAKER.  sri 

Christopher  Gadsden,  of  South  Carolina,  rose  and  replied 
to  it  in  these  memorable  words :  "  Our  seaport  towns, 
♦'  Mr.  President,  are  composed  of  brick  and  wood.  If 
"  they  are  destroyed,  we  have  clay  and  timber  enough  in 
"  our  country  to  rebuild  them.  But,  if  the  liberties  of  our 
•»  country  are  destroyed,  where  shall  we  find  the  materials 
"to  replace  them?"  Behold  in  this  an  example  of  virtuous 
sentiment  fit  to  be  imitated. 

Indulge  me  with  another  illustration  of  American  pa- 
triotisro,  derived  from  the  same  source.  During  the  siege 
of  Boston,  General  Washington  consulted  Congress  upon 
the  propriety  of  bombarding  the  town.  Mr.  Hancock  was 
then  President  of  Congress.  After  General  Washington's 
letter  was  read,  a  solemn  silence  ensued.  This  was  bro- 
ken by  a  member  making  a  motion  that  the  House  should 
resolve  itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole,  in  order  that 
Mr.  Hancock  might  give  his  opinion  upon  the  important 
subject,  as  ht  was  so  deeply  interested  Irom  having  all  his 
estate  in  Boston.  After  he  left  the  chair,  he  addressed  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  of  the  whole  in  the  following 
words:  ''  It  is  true,  sir,  nearly  all  the  property  I  have  in 
*•'■  the  world  is  in  houses  and  other  real  estate  in  the  town 
"  of  Boston ;  but  if  the  expulsion  of  the  British  army  from 
"  it,  and  the  liberties  of  our  country  require  their  being 
*'  burnt  to  ashes — issue  the  order  for  that  purpose  inline- 
"  diatehj:'' 

Whiit  has  ancient  or  modern  story  to  boast  beyond  such 
elevated  specimens  ot"  public  virtue?  and  what  inspiring 
lessons  of  duty  do  they  teach  to  us  ?  W^ar,  fellow-citizens, 
is  not  the  greatest  of  evils.  Long  submission  to  injustice 
is  worse.  Peace,  a  long  peace,  a  peace  purchased  by 
mean  and  inglorious  sacrifices,  is  worse,  is  far  worse. 
War  takes  away  a  life  destined  by  nature  to  death.  It 
produces  chiefly  bodily  evils.  But  when  ignoble  peace 
robs  us  of  virtue,  debases  the  mind  and  chills  its  best 
feelings,  it  renders  l.fe  a  living  death,  and  makes  us  of- 
fensive above  ground.  The  evils  ot  ignoble  peace  are, 
an  inordinate  love  of  money — rage  of  party  spirit — and  a 
willingness  to  endure  even  slavery  itself  rather  than  bear 
pecuniary  deprivations  or  brave  manly  hazards.  Tne  states 
of  HolL'ml  ;  nd  of  Italy  will  be  found,  at  several  stages  of 
their  history,  strikingly  to  exemplify  this  remark 


Sr2  AMERICAN 

War  in  a  just  cause  produces  patriotism :  witness  the 
speech  of  Gadsden  !  It  produces  the  most  noble  disinte- 
restedness where  our  country  is  concerned :  witness  the 
speech  of  Hancock  !  It  serves  to  destroy  party  spirit, 
which  may  become  worse  than  war.  In  war  death  is  pro- 
duced without  personal  hatred ;  but  under  the  influence  of 
party  spirit  inflamed  by  the  sordid  desires  of  an  inglorious 
peace,  the  most  malignant  passions  are  generated  and  we 
hate  with  the  spirit  of  murderers. 

Could  the  departed  heroes  of  the  revolution  rise  from 
their  sleep  and  behold  their  descendants  hanging  content- 
edly over  hoards  of  money,  or  casting  up  British  invoices, 
while  so  long  a  list  of  wrongs  still  looked  them  in  the  face, 
calling  for  retribution,  what  would  they  say  ?  would  they 
not  hasten  back  to  their  tombs,  now  more  welcome  than 
ever,  since  they  would  conceal  from  their  view  the  base 
conduct  of  those  sons  for  whom  they  so  gallantly  fought, 
and  so  gallantly  fell  ?  But  stop,  return,  return,  illustrious 
band  !  stay  and  behold,  stay  and  applaud  what  we  too  are 
doing !  we  will  not  dishonor  your  noble  achievements ! 
we  will  defend  the  inheritance  you  bequeaihed  us, — we 
will  wipe  away  all  past  stains,  we  will  maintain  our  rights 
at  the  nvv'ord,  or  like  you,  we  will  die  !  Then  shall  we  ren- 
der our  ashes  worthy  to  mingle  with  yours  ! 

Sacred  in  our  celebrations  be  this  day  to  the  end  of  time  ! 
Revered  be  the  memories  of  the  statesmen  and  orators 
whose  wisdom  led  to  the  act  of  Independence,  and  of  the 
gallant  soldiers  who  sealed  it  with  their  blood !  May  the 
fires  of  their  genius  and  courage  animate  and  sustain  us 
in  our  contest,  and  bring  it  to  a  like  glorious  result!  may 
it  be  carried  on  with  singleness  to  the  objects  that  alone 
summoned  us  to  it — as  a  great  and  imperious  duty,  irk- 
some yet  necessary  !  May  there  be  a  willing,  a  joyful,  im- 
niolation  of  all  selfish  passions  on  the  altar  of  a  common 
country  !  may  the  hearts  of  our  combatants  be  bold,  and, 
under  a  propitious  heaven,  their  swords  flash  victory! 
mav  a  speedy  peace  bless  us  and  the  passions  of  war  go 
off','leaving  in  their  place  a  stronger  love  of  country  and 
of  each  other  !  Then  may  pacific  giories,  accumulating  and 
beaming  from  the  excitement  of  the  national  mind,  long  be 

ours  : a  roused  intellect,  a  spirit  of  patriotic  improvement 

in  whatever  can  gild  the  American  nam«  j — in  arts,  in  lite* 


SPEAKER.  srs 

rature,  in  science,  in  manufactures,  in  agriculture,  in  le- 
gislation, in  morals,  in  imbuing  our  admirable  forms  of 
polity  with  still  more  and  more  perfection — may  these 
then  long  be  ours  !  may  common  perils  and  common 
triumphs  bind  us  more  clos«tly  together !  may  the  era  fur- 
nish names  to  our  annals  ""on  whom  late  time  a  kindling 
eye  shall  turn !"  Re\)'ered  be  the  dust  of  those  who  fall, 
sweet  their  memories ! — their  country  vindicated,  their 
duty  done,  an  honorable  renown,  the  regrets  of  a  nation, 
the  eulogies  of  friendship,  the  slow  and  moving  dirges  of 
the  camp,  the  tears  of  beauty — all,  all,  will  sanctify  their 
doom  !— f-Honored  be  those  who  outlive  the  strife  of  arms  ! 
— our  rights  established,  justice  secured,  a  haughty  foe 
taught  to  respect  the  freemen  she  had  abused  and  plun- 
dered— to  survive  to  such  recollections  and  such  a  con- 
sciousness, is  there,  can  there  be,  a  nobler  reward ! 


An  old  Indian  Chief  to  an  EngTish  Officer  xvho  had  been 
taken  Prisoner  and  become  a  Sla^e  to  the  Indian, 

"  Since  you  have  been  my  captive,  you  must  acknow- 
ledge that  I  have  treated  you  with  kmdness  :  I  have  taught 
you  to  form  the  swift  canoe,  to  chase  the  bear,  to  preprire 
the  beaver's  skin,  and  to  speed  the  shaft.  Tell  me,  is  your 
father  living  i"" — >'  He  was  alive,'^  the  officer  replied, 
"  when  1  left  my  country."  The  chief  returned,  *'  I  was 
a  father  once  :  thy  loss,  oh  valiant  son  !  like  the  arrow  that 
put  an  end  to  thy  existence,  drinks  the  blood  that  waraiS 
my  heart.  No  joy,  no  comfort  have  I  known,  since  I  have 
felt  the  absence  of  him  whom  I  loved  Vvith  such  an  affec- 
tion. Behold  that  sun  !  how  bright  it  shines  to  you  !  Since 
that  sad  day  it  looks  to  me  a  cloud  !  How  cheerfully  yon- 
der roses  meet  your  eye  !  To  me  they  seem  devoid  of  every 
charm.  Go,  youthful  stranger,  to  your  father;  go,  wipe 
from  his  furrowed  cheek  the  stream  of  parental  sorrow : 
go,  bid  the  sun  display  to  him  all  its  splendour  j  and  bid 
the  rose  in  all  her  bloom  appear!"^. 


K  li 


374  AMERICAN 


Ati  Indiaji  Chief  to  the  Engliah  Commissioners  at   the 
Treaty  of  Feace-^175S. 

"  Brethren — I  have  raised  my  voice,  and  all  the  In- 
dians have  heard  me  as  far  as  the  Twightvvees,  and  have 
regarded  my  voice,  and  are  now  come  to  this  place.  Bre- 
thren, the  cause  why  the  Indians  of  Ohio  left  you  was 
owing  to  yourselves.  The  governor  of  Virginia  settled 
in  our  lands,  and  disregarded  our  messages :  but,  when 
the  French  came  to  us,  they  traded  with  our  people,  used 
them  kindly,  and  gained  their  affections.  Our  cousins  the 
jVlinisinks  tell  us,  they  were  wronged  of  a  great  deal  of 
land,  and  pushed  back  by  the  English  settling  so  fast  upon 
thtm,  as  not  to  know  whether  they  have  any  lands  remain- 
ing in  surety.  You  deal  hardly  with  us ;  you  claim  all 
the  wild  animals  of  the  forests,  and  will  not  let  us  come 
on  your  lands  so  much  as  to  hunt  after  them ;  you  will  not 
let  us  peel  the  bark  of  a  single  tree  to  cover  our  cubins — 
surely  this  is  hard !  Our  fathers,  when  they  sold  the  land, 
did  not  purpose  to  deprive  themselves  of  hunting  the  wild 
deer,  or  using  a  branch  of  wood.  Brethren,  we  have  al- 
ready acquainted  you  with  our  grievances  ;  and  we  have 
referred  our  cause  to  the  great  king.  I  desire  to  know  if 
king  George  has  yet  decided  this  matter,  and  whether  jus- 
tice will  be  done  to  the  Mioisinks  ?" 


Speech  of  Logan,  a  Mingo  Chief  to  Lord  Dunmore,  Gover- 
nor of  Virginia — i7r4. 

"  I  appeal  to  any  white  man  to  say,  if  ever  he  entered 
Logan's  cabin  hungry,  and  he  gave  him  not  meat :  if  ever 
he  came  cold  and  naked,  and  he  clothed  him  not.  During 
the  course  of  the  last  long  and  bloody  war  Logan  remain- 
ed idle  in  his  cabin,  an  advocate  for  peace.  Such  was  my 
love  for  the  whites,  that  my  countrymen  pointed  as  they 
passed,  and  said,  '  Logan  is  the  friend  of  white  men.*  I 
had  t:ven  thought  to  have  lived  with  you,  but  for  the  inju- 
ries of  one  man.  Colonel  Cresap,  the  last  spring,  in  cold 
blood,  and  unprovoked,  murdered  all  the  relations  of  Lo- 
gan, not  even  sparing  my  women  and  children.     There 


SPEAKER.  srs 

runs  not  a  drop  of  my  blood  in  the  veins  of  any  living 
creature.  This  called  on  me  for  revenge.  I  have  sought 
it :  I  have  killed  many :  I  have  fully  glutted  my  ven- 
geance :  for  my  country  I  rejoice  at  the  beams  of  peace. 
But  do  not  harbour  a  thought  that  mine  is  the  joy  of  fear. 
Logan  never  felt  fear.  He  will  not  turn  on  his  heel  to 
save  his  life.     Who  is  there  to  mourn  for  Logan  ? — Not 


Speech  of  an  Indian  Chief  to  the  Provincial  Congress^  in 
New  England^  April  Wth^  1775, 

Brothers  !  we  have  heard  you  speak  by  your  letter — we 
thank  you  for  it — we  now  make  answer.  Brothers !  you 
remember  when  you  first  came  over  the  great  waters  I 
was  great  and  you  was  little,  very  small.  I  then  took  you 
in  for  a  friend,  and  kept  you  under  my  arms,  so  that  no 
one  might  injure  you  ;  since  that  time  we  have  ever  been 
true  friends ;  there  has  never  been  any  quarrel  between 
us. — But  now  our  conditions  are  changed.  You  are  be 
come  great  and  tall.  You  reach  to  the  clouds.  You  are 
seen  all  round  the  world.  I  am  become  small,  very  little. 
I  am  not  so  high  as  your  heel.  Now  you  take  care  of  me, 
and  I  look  to  you  for  protection.  Brothers!  I  am  sorry 
to  hear  of  this  great  quarrel  between  you  and  Old  Eng- 
land. It  appears  that  blood  soon  must  be  shed  to  end  this 
quarrel.  We  never  till  this  day  understood  the  foundation 
of  this  quarrel  between  you  and  the  country  you  came 
from.  Brothers !  Whenever  1  see  your  blood  running, 
50U  will  soon  find  me  i^bout  you  to  revenge  my  brother's 
blood. — Although  I  am  low  and  very  small,  I  will  gripe 
hold  of  your  enemy's  heel,  that  he  cannot  run  so  fast  and 
so  light  as  if  he  had  nothing  at  his  heels. 

Brothers  !  You  know  I  am  not  so  wise  as  you  are,  there- 
fore I  ask  your  advice  in  what  I  am  now  going  to  say — 
I  have  been  thinking  before  you  come  to  action,  to  take  a 
run  to  the  westward,  and  feel  the  mind  of  my  Indian  bre- 
thren the  Six  Nations,  and  know  how  they  stand,  whether 
they  are  on  your  side  or  for  your  enemies.  If  I  find  they 
are  against  you,  I  will  try  to  turn  their  minds.  I  think 
they  will  listen  to  me  for  they  have  always  looked  this 


srs  AMERICAN 

%vav  for  advice  concerning  all  important  news  that  comes 
from  the  rising  of  thfe  sun.  If  they  hearken  to  me,  you 
will  not  be  afraid  of  any  danger  from  behind  you.  How- 
ever their  minds  are  affected,  you  shall  soon  know  by  me. 
—Now  I  think  I  can  do  you  more  service  in  this  way, 
than  by  marching  off  immediately  to  Boston,  and  staying 
there  ;  it  may  be  a  great  while  before  blood  runs.  Now 
as  I  said,  you  are  wiser  than  I,  I  leave  this  for  your  consi- 
deration, whether  I  come  down  immediately  or  wait  till  I 
hear  some  blood  is  spilled. 

Brothers  !  I  would  not  have  you  think  by  this  that  we 
are  falling  back  from  our  engagements.  We  are  ready  to 
do  any  thing  for  your  relief,  and  shall  be  guided  by  your 
couasel. 

Brothers  !  One  thing  I  ask  of  you,  if  you  send  for  me  to 
fight,  that  5'ou  will  let  mt-  fight  in  my  own  Indian  way.  I 
aui  not  used  lo  fight  English  fashion,  therefore  you  must 
not  expect  I  can  train  like  your  men.  Only  point  out  to 
me  where  your  enemies  keep,  and  that  is  all  I  shall' want 
to  know. 


Speech  of  the  Chiefs  of  the  Seneca  nation  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States — 1 790. 

"  Father — the  voice  of  the  Seneca  nation  speaks  to^you 
— the  great  counsellor,  in  whose  heart  the  wise  men  of  all 
the  thirteen  fires  have  placed  their  wisdom  ;  it  may  be  very 
small  in  your  ears,  and  we  therefore  intreat  you  to  hearken 
with  attention,  lor  we  are  about  so  speak  of  things  which 
are,  to  us,  very  great. 

When  your  army  entered  the  country  of  the  six  nations, 
■we  called  you  the  town  destroyer  j  and  to  this  day,  when 
your  name  is  heard,  our  women  look  behind  them  and 
turn  pale,  and  our  children  cling  close  to  the  necks  of  their 
mothers.  Our  counsellors  and  warriors  are  men,  find  can- 
not be  afraid:  but  their  hearts  are  grieved  with  the  fears 
of  our  women  and  children,  and  desire  that  it  may  be  bu- 
ried so  deep,  as  to  be  heard  no  more. 

When  you  gave  us  peace,  we  called  you  father ;  because 
you  promised  to  secure  us  in  the  possession  of  our  lands. 


SPEAKER.  '      3T 

Do  this,  and  so  long  as  the  land  shall  remain,  that  beloved 
name  will  he  in  the  heart  of  every  S  neca. 

Father — we  mean  to  open  our  hearts  before  you,  and 
we  earnestly  desire  that  you  will  let  us  clearly  understand 
what  you  resolve  to  do. 

When  our  chiefs  returned  from  the  treat\  at  Fort  Stan- 
wix,  and  laid  before  our  council  what  had  been  done  there, 
our  nation  was  surprised  to  hear  how  ;;ref:t  a  countrv  \ou 
bad  compelled  them  to  give  up  to  \  ou,  without  your  d;\v-' 
ing  to  us  any  thing  for  it.  Every  one  said  that  vour  hearts 
we'"e  yet  sv;elled  with  resentment  against  us,  for  what  had 
happened  during  the  war  ;  but  that  one  dav  you  would 
consider  it  with  morr  kindness.  We  ask^d  each  other, 
what  have  we  done  to  di-strve  such  severe  chastisement  ? 

F.itht-r — when  you  kindled  your  thirteen  fin-s  separate- 
ly, the  wisr  men  assembltd  at  them  told  us,  that  y   u  were 

all   l^rothers — the  children  of  one   great  fath..r ho  re- 

g.irded  the  red  people  as  his  childrv  n. —  i'h  v  called  us 
brothers,  and  invited  us  to  his  protection.  Tiiey  told 
us  that  he  resided  beyond  th(?  great  water,  where  the  sunf 
first  rises — that  he  was  a  king  whose  power  no  people 
could  resist,  and  that  his  goodness  was  bright  as  the  sun 
—•what  they  said,  went  to  our  hearts.  We  acceptf-d  the 
invitation,  and  promised  to  obey  him.  What  the  Seneca 
nation  promises,  th^y  faithfully  perform:  and  Vv'hen  you 
refused  obedience  to  that  king,  he  commanded  us  to  assist 
his  beloved  men  in  making  you  sober. — In  obeying  him, 
we  did  no  more  than  yourselves  had  led  us  to  promise. 
The  men  v*ho  claimed  this  promise,  told  us  that  you  were 
children  and  had  no  guns  ;  that  when  they  had  shaken  you, 
you  would  submit.  We  hearkened  unto  them,  and  were 
deci  ivrd  until  \  our  army  approached  our  towns.  We 
were  deceived  ;  but  \  our  people  teaching  us  to  confide  in 
that  king,  h:id  helped  to  deceive  us;  and  we  now  appeal: 
to  your  heart — Is  all  the  blame  ours  ? 

Father — when  we  saw  that  we  had  been  deceived,  and 
heard  the  invitation  which  you  gave  us  to  draw  near  to 
the  fire,  which  3  ou  had  kindled,  and  talk  with  you  con- 
cerning peace,  we  made  haste  toward  it.  You  then  told 
us  you  could  crush  us  to  nothing,  and  you  demanded  from 
us  a  j^reat  country,  as  the  price  of  that  peace  which  you 
had  offered  to  us  -,  as  if  our  want  of  strength  had  destroy- 

K  K  ^ 


378  AMERICAN 

ed  our  rights.  Our  chiefs  had  felt  your  power,  and  were 
unable  to  contend  against  you,  and  they  therefore  gave  up 
that  country.  What  they  agreed  to,  has  bound  our  nation: 
but  your  anger  against  us  must,  by  this  time,  be  cooled, 
and  although  our  strength  has  not  increased,  nor  your 
pou  er  become  less,  we  ask  you  to  consider  calmly —were 
the  terms  dictated  to  us  by  your  commissioners  reason- 
able or  just  ? 

Father — Hear  our  case.  Many  nations  inhabited  this 
country  j  but  they  had  no  wisdom ;  therefore  they  warred 
together — the  six  nations  were  powerful,  and  compelled 
lliem  to  peace.  The  land,  for  a  great  extent,  was  given 
up  to  them,  but  the  nations  which  were  not  destroyed,  all 
contniued  on  those  lands,  and  claimed  the  protection  of 
the  six  nations,  as  brothers  of  their  fathers.  They  were 
men,  and,  when  at  peace,  had  a  right  to  live  upon  the 
earth. 

The  French  came  among  us,  and  built  Niagara  ;  they 
became  our  fathers,  and  took  care  of  us.  Sir  William 
Johnson  came,  and  took  that  fort  from  the  French  ;  he 
became  our  father,  and  promised  to  take  care  of  us  ;  and 
he  did  so,  until  you  were  too  strong  for  his  king.  To 
him  we  gave  four  miles  round  Niagara,  as  a  place  of 
trade.  We  have  already  said  how  we  came  to  join  against 
you;  we  sav;  that  we  were  wrong:  we  wished  for  peace; 
you  demandtd  a  great  country  to  be  given  up  to  you;  it 
was  surrendered  to  you,  as  the  price  of  peace ;  and  we 
oup^ht  to  have  peace  and  possessioaof  the  little  land  which 
you  th  n  left  us. 

Father— when  that  great  country  was  given  up  to  you, 
there  were  but  few  chiefs  present  ;  and  they  were  com- 
Tselied  to  give  it  up.  And  it  is  not  the  six  nations  only 
.hat  reproach  those  chiefs  with  having  given  up  that  coun- 
;ry.  The  Chipaways,  and  all  the  nations  who  lived  on 
these  lands  wettward,  call  to  us,  and  ask  us,  brothers  of 
our  fathers,  where  is  the  place  which  you  htive  reserved 
or  us  to  lie  down  upon  ? 

Father—you  have  compelled  us  to  do  that  which  makes 

us  ashamed  ;  we  have  nothing  to  answer  to  the  children 

->f  the   brothers  of  our  fathers.     When  last  spring  they 

ailed  upon  us  to  go  to  war,  to  secure  them  a  bed  to  lie 

(ewn  uDon  j  the  Sjnecas  intreated  them  to  be  quiet,  unti' 


SPEAKER.  079 

we  had  spoken  to  you  ;  but  on  our  wr.y  down,  we  heard 
that  your  array  had  gone  towards  the  country  which  those 
nations  inhabited,  and  if  they  meet  together,  the  best 
blood  on  both  sides  will  fall  to  the  ground. 

Father — we  will  not  conceal  from  you,  that  the  Great 
God,  and  not  men,  has  preserved  the  Corn  Plant  from  the 
hands  of  his  own  nation.  For  they  ask  continually,  where 
is  the  land  which  our  children,  and  their  children  after 
them  are  to  lie  down  upon  ?  You  told  us,  say  ihey,  that 
the  line  drawn  from  Pennsylvania  to  lake  Ontario,  would 
mark  it  forever  on  the  east,  and  the  line  running  from 
Beaver  creek  to  Pennsylvania,  would  mark  it  on  the  west';, 
and  we  see  that  it  is  not  so  ;  for  first  one  und  then  another 
come  and  take  it  away,  by  order  of  that  people  wiiich  you 
tell  us  promised  to  secure  it  to  us.  ile  is  silent  j  for  he 
has  nothing  to  answer. 

When  the  sun  gots  down,  he  opens  his  heart  before 
God,  and  earlier  than  the  sun  appears  ag.iin  upon  the  hills, 
he  gives  thanks  for  his  protection  during  the  night ;  for 
he  feels,  that  among  men  become  desperate  by  the  injuries 
they  sustain,  it  is  God  only  that  can  preserve  him.  He 
loves  peace  :  and  all  he  had  in  store  he  has  given  to  those 
who  have  been  robbed  by  your  people,  lest  thev  should 
plunder  the  innocent  to  repay  ihemstlves.  The  whole 
season,  which  others  have  employed  in  providing  fvr  their 
families,  he  has  spent  in  endccwo  irs  to  preserve  peace  : 
and  this  moment  his  wife  and  children  are  lying  on  the 
ground,  and  in  want  of  io^,d  ;  hs  heart  is  in  pain  lor  ihem  ; 
but  he  perceives  that  the  Great  Spirit  will  try  his  firmness 
in  doing  what  is  right. 

Father — The  game,  which  the  Great  Spirit  sent  into  our 
country,  for  us  to  eat,  is  going  from  among  us.  We  thought 
he  intended  we  should  till  the  ground  with  the  plough,  as 
the  white  people  do  ;  and  we  talked  to  one  antnher  about 
it.  But  before  we  speak  to  you  concerning  this,  we  must 
know  from  you,  whether  you  mean  to  leave  us  and  oui^ 
children  any  land  to  till.  Speak  plainly  to  us,  concerning 
this  great  buiiness* 


380  AMERICAN 


Speech  of  the  Chiefs  of  the  Seneca  nation  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States—Xr^O. 

Father — Your  speech,  written  on  the  great  paper,  is  to 
us  like  the  first  light  of  the  morning  to  a  sick  man,  whose 
pulse  beats  too  strongly  in  his  temples,  and  prevents  him 
from  sleeping,  he  sees  it,  and  rej(jices  ;  but  is  not  cured. 

You  say,  you  have  spoken  plainly  on  the  great  point, 
that  you  will  protect  us  in  our  lands  secured  to  us  at  fort 
Stanwix,  and  that  we  have  a  right  to  sell  or  refuse  to  sell 
it. — This  is  very  good. 

But  our  nation  complain,  that  you  compelled  us,  at  that 
treaty,  to  give  ui-  too  much  of  our  lands.  We  confess 
that  our  nation  WiS  ound  y  wh  t  was  doiv'  there,  and  ac- 
know;edgt  \  our  power.  Wc  have  now  appealed  to  your- 
selves against  that  treaty,  as  mtdt  while  you  were  too  an- 
gr\'  at  us,  and  thircfore  unreasonable  and  unjust.  To  this 
you  h  SVC  gi   en  us  no  answer, 

F  thci — Look  at  the  land  we  gave  you  at  the  treaty, 
and  rhen  cast  your  eyes  upon  what  we  now  ask  you  to  re- 
store to  us;  ad  you  will  see  that  whit  we  ask  is  a  very 
little  piec^.  By  givmg  it  b  sck  ag-.in,  you  will  satisfy  the 
whole  of  our  nation.  The  chiefs,  who  signed  that  treatv, 
Xvill  be  in  salVry  ;  and  peace-  between  your  children  and 
Oiir  ( hildren,  wdl  continue  so  long  as  your  lands  continue 
t(  join  ours.  Every  man  of  our  n.-tion  will  turn  his  eyes 
aw  y  irom  all  the  other  I. aids  w  inch  we  then  gave  up  to 
you,  uui  forget  that  our  fathers  ^  Vcr  said  that  they  belong- 
ed to  th'-n-. 

Fuihe; — You  say  you  will  appoint  an  agent  to  take  care 
of  us.  Let  him  come  and  take  care  of  our  trade  :  but 
we  desire  he  may  not  have  any  thing  to  do  with  our  lands  ; 
for  the  agents,  who  have  come  among  us,  and  pretended 
to  take  care  of  us,  have  always  deceiv  d  us  whenever  we 
sold  lands  ;  both  when  the  king,  and  when  the  separate 
states  have  bargained  with  us.  They  have,  by  this  means, 
occasioned  many  wars ;  and  we  are  unwilling  to  trust  them 
again. 

Father — The  blood  that  was  spilt  near  Pine  creek  is  co- 
vered^ and  we  shall  never  look  where  it  lies.  We  know 
that  Pennsylvania  will  satisfy  us  for  that  which  we  speak 


SPEAKER.  381 

of  to  them,  before  we  speak  to  you.  The  chain  of  friend- 
ship will  now,  we  hope,  be  made  strong:,  as  you  desire  it 
to  be — we  will  hold  it  fast,  and  our  end  of  it  shall  never 
rust  in  our  hands. 

Father — We  told  you  what  advice  we  gave  to  the  peo- 
ple you  are  now  at  war  with  ;  and  we  now  tell  you,  they 
have  promised  to  come  again  next  spring  to  our  towns. 
♦We  shall  not  wait  for  their  coming,  but  set  out  very  early 
in  the  season,  and  show  them  what  you  have  done  for  us, 
which  must  convince  ihem,  that  you  will  do  for  them  eve- 
ry thing  that  they  ought  to  ask.  We  think  they  will  hear 
us,  and  follow  our  advice. 

Father — You  gave  us  leave  to  speak  our  minds  concern- 
ing tilling  of  the  ground.  We  ask  you  to  teach  us  to 
plough  and  grind  corn,  and  supply  us  with  broad  axes, 
saws,  augers,  and  other  tools,  to  assist  us  in  building  saw- 
mills, so  that  we  may  make  our  houses  more  comfortable 
and  durable  ;  that  you  will  send  smiths  among  us  ;  and 
above  all,  that  you  will  teach  our  children  to  read  and 
write,  and  our  women  to  spin  and  weave.  The  manner  of 
doing  these  things  for  us,  we  leave  to  you  who  understand 
them  ;  but  we  assure  you,  we  will  follow  your  advice  as 
far  as  we  are  able. 


Speech  of  the  Chiefs  of  the  Seneca  7iatton  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States — 1790. 

Father — No  Seneca  ever  got- s  from  the  fire  of  his  friend 
until  he  has  said  to  him,  I  am  going.  We  therefore  fell 
you  that  we  are  now  setting  out  lor  our  own  country. 

Father — We  thank  you  from  our  hearts  tliat  we  now 
know  that  there  is  a  country  that  we  may  call  our  (nvn, 
and  on  which  we  may  lie  down  in  peace.  We  see,  th;it 
there  will  be  peace  between  our  children  and  your  chil- 
dren ;  and  our  hearts  are  very  glad.  We  will  persuade 
the  Wyandots,  and  other  western  n;itions,  to  open  their 
eyes,  and  look  towards  the  bed  which  you  have  made  for 
us,  and  to  ask  of  you  a  bed  for  themselves  and  their  chil- 
dren, that  will  not  slide  from  under  them.  Wc  thank  you 
for  your  presents  to  us,  and  rely  on  your  promise  to  in- 
struct us  in  raising  corn  as  the  white  people  do.     The 


:^82  AMERICAN 

sooner  you  do  this  the  better  for  us ;  'and  we  thank  you 
for  the  care  which  you  have  taken  to  prevent  bad  people 
coming  to  trade  among  us.  If  any  come  without  your  li- 
cense we  will  turn  them  back  ;  and  we  hope  our  nation 
will  determine  to  spill  all  the  rum  that  shall  hereafter  be 
brought  to  our  towns. 

Father — You  have  not  asked  of  us  any  surety  for  peace 
on  our  part;  but  we  have  agreed  to  send  nine  Seneca  boys 
to  be  under  your  care  for  education.  Tell  us  at  what  time 
you  will  receive  thtm,  and  they  shall  be  sent  at  that  time. 
This  will  assure  you  that  we  are  indeed  at  peace  with  you, 
and  determined  to  continue  so.  If  you  can  teach  them  to 
be  wise  and  good  men,  we  will  take  care  that  our  nation 
shall  be  willing  to  be  instructed  by  them. 


Speech  of  Farmer^s  Brother. 

[The  following  Speech  was  delivered  in  a  public  Council  at  Genesee 
River,  Nov.  21,  1798,  by  Ho-na-ya-tvuSy  commonly  called  Farmer's 
Brother,  and  after  being-  written  as  interpreted,  it  was  signed  by 
the  principal  Chiefs  present,  and  sent  to  the  Legislature  of  the  state 
of  New-York,] 

The  Sachems,  Chiefs  and  Warriors  of  the  Seneca  Na- 
tion, to  the  Sachems  and  Chiefs  assembled  about  the  great 
Council  Fire  cf  the  State  of  New- York. 

"  l-rorhers — As  you  are  once  more  assembled  in  coun- 
cil lor  the  purpose  of  doing  honor  to  yourselves,  and  just- 
ice to  your  country;  we,  your  brothers,  the  Sachems, 
Chiefs,  and  Warriors  of  the  Seneca  Nation,  request  you 
to  open  your  ears,  and  give  attention  to  our  voice  and 
wishes. 

''  Brothers — You  will  recollect  the  late  contest  between 
you  and  your  father,  the  great  king  of  England.  This 
contest  threw  the  inhabitants  of  this  whole  island  into  a 
great  tumult  and  commotion,  like  a  raging  whirlwind, 
which  tears  up  the  trees,  and  tosses  to  and  tro  the  leaves, 
so  that  no  one  knows  from  v/hence  they  come,  or  where 
they  will  fall. 

*^  Brothers — This  whirlwind  was  so  directed  by  the 
Great  Spirit  above,  as  to  throw  into  our  arms  two  of  your 
infunt  children,  Jasper  Parrish,  and  Horatio  Jones.     We 


SPEAKER.  383 

ndopted  them  into  our  families  and  made  them  our  chil- 
dren. We  loved  them  and  nourished  them.  They  lived 
with  us  many  years.  At  length,  the  Great  Spirit  spoke 
to  the  whirlwind,  and  it  was  still.  A  clear  and  uninter- 
rupted sky  appeared.  The  path  of  peace  was  opened, 
and  the  chain  of  friendship  was  once  more  made  bright. 
Then  these  our  adopted  children  left  us,  to  seek  their  re- 
lations. We  wished  them  to  remain  among  us,  and  pro- 
mised, if  they  would  return  and  live  in  our  country  to  give 
each  of  them  a  seat  of  land  for  them  and  their  children 
to  set  down  upon. 

"  Brothers — They  have  returned  and  have  for  several 
years  past  been  serviceable  to  us  as  interpreters.  We  still 
feel  our  hearts  beat  with  affection  for  them,  and  now  v/ish 
to  fulfil  the  promise  we  made  them,  and  to  reward  them 
for  their  services.  We  have  therefore  made  up  our  minds 
to  give  them  a  seat  of  two  square  miles  of  land  lying  on 
the  outlet  of  Lake  Erie,  about  three  miles  below  Black. 
Rock,  beginning  at  the  mouth  of  a  creek  known  by  the 
name  of  Scoy-gu-quoy-des  Creek,  running  one  mile  from 
the  river  Niagara,  up  said  creek,  thence  northerly  as  the 
river  runs  two  miles,  thence  westerly  one  mile  to  the  river, 
thence  up  the  river  as  the  river  runs,  two  miles  to  the 
place  of  beginning,  so  as  to  contain  two  square  miles. 

"  Brothers — We  have  now  made  known  to  you  our 
minds.  We  expect  and  earnestly  request  that  you  will 
permit  our  friends  to  receive  this  our  gift,  and  will  make 
the  same  good  to  them,  according  to  the  laws  and  customs 
of  your  nation. 

'^  Brothers— Why  should  you  hesitate  to  make  our 
minds  easy  with  regard  to  this  our  request  ?  To  you  it  is 
but  a  little  thing,  and  have  you  not  complied  with  the  re- 
quest, and  confirmed  the  gift  of  our  brothers  the  Oneidas, 
the  Onondagas  and  Cayugas  to  their  interpreters?  And 
shall  we  ask  and  not  be  heard  ? 

"  Brothers — We  send  you  this  our  speech,  to  which  we 
expect  s  our  answer  before  the  breaking  up  of  your  great 
council  fire." 


AMERICAN 


Speech  of  Red  Jacket. 

[In  the  summer  of  1805,  a  number  of  the  principal  Chies  and  War* 
riors  of  tlie  Six  Nations,  principally  Senecas,  assembled  at  Buffalo 
Creek,  in  ihe  State  of  New-York,  at  the  particular  request  of  ihe 
Rev  Mr.  Cram,  a  Missionary  from  the  St'te  of  Massachusetts.  The 
Mssionary  being  furnished  with  an  Interpreter,  and  accompanied 
by  .  he  Agent  of  the  United  States  for  Indian  affairs,  met  the  Indians 
ill  Council,  when  the  following  talk  took  place.] 

FIRST,  BY  THE  AGENT. 

"  Brothers  of  the  Six  Nations — I  rejoice  to  meet  you 
at  this  time,  and  thank  the  Great  Spirit,  that  he  has  pre- 
served you  in  health,  and  given  me  another  opportunity  of 
taking  you  by  the  hand. 

"  Brothers — The  person  who  sits  by  me,  is  a  friend  who 
has  come  a  great  distance  to  hold  a  talk  with  you.  He 
will  inform  you  what  his  business  is,  and  it  is  my  request 
that  you  would  listen  with  attention  to  his  words." 

Missionary.  "  My  friends — I  am  thankful  for  the 
opportunity  afforded  us  of  uniting  together  at  this  time. 
I  had  a  great  desire  to  see  you,  and  enquire  into  your  state 
and  welfare;  for  this  purpose  I  have  travelled  a  great  dis- 
tance, being  sent  by  your  only  friends,  the  Boston  Mis- 
sionary Society.  You  will  recollect  they  formerly  sent 
missionaries  among  you,  to  instruct  you  in  religion,  and 
labor  for  your  good.  Although  they  have  not  heard  from 
you  for  a  long  time,  yet  they  have  not  forgotten  their 
brothers  the  Six  Nations,  and  are  still  anxious  to  do  you 
good. 

'•^  Brothers — I  have  not  come  to  get  your  lands  or  your 
money,  but  to  enlighten  your  minds,  and  to  instruct  you 
how  to  worship  the  Great  Spirit  agreeably  to  his  mind 
and  will,  and  to  preach  to  you  the  gospel  of  his  son  Jesus 
Christ.  There  is  but  one  religion,  and  but  one  way  to  ; 
serve  God,  and  if  you  do  not  embrace  the  right  way,  you 
cannot  be  happy  hereafter.  You  have  never  worshipped 
the  Great  Spirit  in  a  manner  acceptable  to  him  ;  but  have 
all  your  lives  been  in  great  errors  and  darkness.  To  en- 
deavor to  remove  these  errors,  and  open  your  eyes,  so  that 
you  might  see  clearly,  is  my  business  with  you. 


SPEAKER.  385 

"  Brothers — I  wish  to  talk  with  you  as  one  friend  talks 
with  another ;  and  if  you  have  any  objections  to  receive 
the  religion  which  I  preach,  I  wish  you  to  state  them  ; 
and  I  will  endeavor  to  satisfy  your  minds,  and  remove  the 
objections. 

"  Brothers— I  want  you  to  speak  your  minds  freely ;  for 
I  wish  to  reason  with  you  on  the  subject,  and,  if  possible, 
remove  all  doubts,  if  there  be  any  on  your  minds.  The 
subject  is  an  important  one,  and  it  is  of  consequence  that 
you  give  it  an  early  attention  while  the  ofter  is  made  you. 
Your  friends  the  Boston  Missionary  Society,  will  continue 
to  send  you  good  and  faithful  miulbLcis,  to  instruct  and 
strengthen  you  in  religion,  if,  on  your  part,  you  are  will- 
ing to  receive  them. 

"  Brothers — Since  I  have  been  in  this  part  of  the  coun- 
try, I  have  visited  some  of  your  small  villages,  and  talk- 
ed with  your  people.  They  appear  willing  to  receive  in- 
struction, but,  as  they  look  up  to  you  as  their  older  bro- 
thers in  council,  they  want  first  to  know  your  opinion  on 
the  subject. 

"  You  have  now  heard  what  I  have  to  propose  at  pre- 
sent. I  hope  you  will  take  it  into  consideration,  and  give 
me  an  answer  before  we  part." 

[After  about  two  hours  consultation  among-  themselves,  the  Chief  com- 
monly called  by  the  white  people.  Red  Jacket,  (whose  Indian  name 
is  Sagu-yu-wha-hah,  which  interpreted  is  Keeper  aivakej  rose  and 
spoke  as  follows :] 

"  Friend  and  Brother — It  was  the  will  of  the  Great 
Spirit  that  we  should  meet  together  this  day.  He  orders 
all  things,  and  has  given  us  a  fine  day  for  our  Council 
He  has  taken  his  garment  from  before  the  sun,  and  caus- 
ed it  to  shine  with  brightness  upon  us.  Our  eyes  are  o- 
pened,  that  we  see  clearly  ;  our  ears  are  unstopped,  that 
we  have  been  able  to  hear  distinctly  the  words  you  have 
spoken.  For  all  these  favors  we  thank  the  Great  Spirit ; 
and  Him  only, 

"  Brother — This  council  fire  was  kindled  by  you.  It 
was  at  your  request  that  we  came  together  at  this  time. 
We  have  listened  with  attention  to  what  you  have  said. 
You  requested  us  to  speak  our  minds  freely.  This  gives 
us  great  joy  ;  for  we  now  consider  that  we  stand  upright 
beforejjyou,  and  can  speak  what  we  think.   All  have  heard 

L  L 


6bo  AMERICAN 

your  voice,  and  all  speak  to  you  now  as  one  man.     Our 
minds  are  agreed. 

*'  Brother — You  say  you  want  an  answer  to  your  talk 
before  you  leave  this  place.  It  is  right  you  should  have 
one,  as  you  are  a  great  distance  from  home,  and  we  do 
not  wish  to  detain  you.  But  we  will  first  look  back  a  lit- 
tle, and  tell  you  what  our  fathers  have  told  us,  and  what 
we  have  heard  from  the  white  people. 
"  Brother— Listen  to  what  we  say. 
*'  There  was  a  time  when  our  forefathers  owned  this 
great  island.  Their  seats  extended  from  the  rising  to  the 
setting  sun.  The  Great  Spirit  had  made  it  for  the  use  of 
Indians.  He  had  created  the  buffalo,  the  deer,  and 
other  animals  for  food.  He  had  made  the  bear  and  tke 
beaver.  Their  skins  served  us  for  cloathing.  He  had 
scattered  them  over  the  country,  and  taught  us  how  to 
take  them.  He  had  caused  the  earth  to  produce  corn 
for  bread.  All  this  He  had  done  for  his  red  children, 
because  He  loved  them.  If  we  had  some  disputes  about 
our  hunting  ground,  they  were  generally  settled  without 
the  shedding  of  much  blood.  But  an  evil  day  came  up- 
on us.  Your  forefathers  crossed  the  great  water,  and 
landed  on  this  island.  Their  numbers  were  small.  They 
found  friends  and  not  enemies.  They  told  us  they  had 
fled  from  their  own  country  for  fear  of  wicked  men,  and 
had  come  here  to  enjoy  their  religion.  They  asked  for  a 
small  seat.  We  took  pity  on  them,  granted  their  request ; 
and  they  sat  down  amongst  us.  We  gave  them  corn  and 
meat ;  they  gave  us  poison  (alluding,  it  is  supposed,  to  ar- 
dent spirits)  in  return. 

•*  The  white  people  had  now  found  our  country.  Tid 
ings  were  carried  back,  and  more  came  amongst  us.  Yet 
^e  did  not  fear  them.  We  took  them  to  be  friends. 
They  called  us  brothers.  We  believed  them,  and  gave 
them  a  larger  seat.  At  length  their  numbers  had  greatly 
increased.  They  wanted  more  land;  they  wanted  our 
country.  Our  eyes  were  opened,  and  our  minds  became 
-uneasy.  Wars  took  place.  Indians  were  hired  to  fight 
against  Indians,  and  many  of  our  people  were  destroyed. 
Tht  y  also  brought  strong  liquor  amongst  us.  It  was  strong 
and  powerful,  and  has  slain  thousands. 


SPEAKER.  3^7 

"  Brother — Our  seats  were  once  large  and  yours  were 
small.  You  have  now  become  a  great  people,  and  we 
have  scarcely  a  place  left  to  spread  our  blankets.  You  have 
got  our  country,  but  are  not  satisfied ;  you  want  to  force 
your  religion  upon  us. 

"  Brother — Continue  to  listen. 

"  You  say  that  you  are  sent  to  instruct  us  how  to  wor- 
ship the  Great  Spirit  agreeably  to  his  mind,  and,  if  we  do 
not  take  hold  of  the  religion  which  you  white  people  teach, 
we  shall  be  unhappy  hereafter.  You  say  that  you  arc 
right  and  we  are  lost.  How  do  we  know  this  to  be  true  ? 
We  understand  that  your  religion  is  written  in  a  book. 
If  it  was  intended  for  us  as  well  as  you,  why  has  not  the 
Great  Spirit  given  to  us,  and  not  only  to  us,  but  why  did 
he  not  give  to  our  forefathers,  the  knowledge  of  that  book, 
with  the  means  of  understanding  it  rightly  !  We  only 
know  what  you  tell  us  about  it.  How  shall  we  know 
when  to  believe,  being  so  often  deceived  by  the  white 


peopl 

"  Brother — You  say  there  is  but  one  way  to  worship 
and  serve  the  Great  Spirit.  If  there  is  but  one  religion  ; 
why  do  you  white  people  differ  so  much  about  it?  Why 
rot  all  agreed,  as  you  can  all  read  the  book  ? 

"  Brother — We  do  not  understand  these  things. 

"  We  are  told  that  your  religion  was  given  to  your  fore- 
fathers, and  has  been  handed  down  from  father  to  son. 
We  also  have  a  religion,  which  was  given  to  our  fore- 
fathers, and  has  been  handed  down  to  us  their  children. 
We  worship  in  that  way.  It  teaches  us  to  be  thankful 
for  all  the  favors  we  receive  ;  to  love  each  other,  and  to 
be  united.     We  never  quarrel  about  religion. 

"  Brother — The  Great  Spirit  has  made  us  all,  but  He 
has  made  a  great  difference  between  his  white  and  red 
children.  He  has  given  us  different  complexions  and  dif- 
ferent customs.  To  you  He  has  given  the  arts.  To  these 
He  has  not  opened  our  eyes.  We  know  these  things  to 
be  true.  Since  He  has  made  so  great  a  difference  between 
us  in  other  things  ;  why  may  we  not  conclude  that  He  has 
given  us  a  different  religion  according  to  our  understand- 
ing? The  Great  Spirit  does  right.  He  knoAS  what  is 
best  for  his  children  j  we  are  satisfied. 


388  AMERICAN 

"  Brother- — We  do  not  wish  to  destroy  your  religion,  or 
take  it  from  you.     We  only  want  to  enjoy  our  own. 

"  Brother — We  are  told  that  you  have  been  preaching 
to  the  white  people  in  this  place.  These  people  are  our 
neighbours.  We  are  acquainted  with  them.  We  will  wait 
a  little  while,  and  see  what  effect  your  preaching  has  up- 
on them.  If  we  find  it  does  them  good,  makes  them  hon- 
est, and  less  disposed  to  cheat  Indians ;  we  will  then  con- 
sider again  of  what  you  have  said. 

"  Brother — You  have  now  heard  our  answer  to  your 
talk,  and  this  is  all  we  have  to  say  at  present. 

"  As  we  are  going  to  part,  we  will  come  and  take  you 
by  the  hand,  and  hope  the  Great  Spirit  will  protect  you 
on  your  journey,  and  return  you  safe  to  your  friends." 

As  the  Indians  began  to  approach  the  missionary,  he 
rose  hastily  from  his  seat  and  replied,  that  he  could  not 
ti^ke  them  by  the  hand  ;  that  there  was  no  fellowship  be- 
tween the  religion  of  God  and  the  works  of  the  devil. 

This  being  interpreted  to  the  Indians,  they  smiled,  and 
retired  in  a  peaceable  manner. 

It  being  afterwards  suggested  to  the  missionary  that 
his  reply  to  the  Indians  was  rather  indiscreet;  he  observ- 
ed, that  he  supposed  the  ceremony  of  shaking  hands  would 
he  received  by  them  as  a  token  that  he  assented  to  what 
they  had  said.  Being  otherwise  informed,  he  said  he  was 
sorry  for  the  expressions. 


Speech  of  Red  Jacket^  caikd  by  the  Indians^  Sa-gu-yii- 
ivha-ha^  or  Keeper  azvake. 

In  ansv/er  to  a  Speech  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Alexander,  a  missionary  from 
the  Missionary  Society  in  New.York,  to  the  Seneca  JSTation  of  Indi- 
ans, delivered  at  a  Council,  held  at  Buffalo  Creek  in  May,  1811. 

"  Brother — We  listened  to  the  talk  you  delivered  to  us 
from  the  Council  of  black  coats^  in  New- York.  We 
have  fully  considered  your  talk,  and  the  offers  you  have 
made  us  ;  we  perfectly  understand  them,  and  we  return 
an  answer,  which  we  wish  you  also  to  understand.     In 

*  The  appellation  given  to  clerg-yuien  by  the  Indiana. 


SPEAKER.  389 

making  up  our  minds  we  have  looked  back,  and  remem- 
bered what  has  been  done  in  our  days,  and  what  our  fa- 
thers have  told  us  was  done  in  old  times. 

"  Brother — Great  numbers  of  black  coats  have  been 
amongst  the  Indians,  and  with  sweet  voices  and  smiling 
faces,  have  offered  to  teach  theni  the  religion  of  the  white 
people.  Our  brethren  in  the  East  listened  to  the  black 
coats — turned  from  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  and  took 
up  the  religion  of  the  white  people.  What  good  has  it 
done  them  ?  Are  they  more  happy  and  more  friendly  one 
to  another  than  we  are?  No,  brother,  they  are  a  divided 
people — we  are  united — they  quarrel  about  religion — we 
live  in  love  and  friendship — they  drink  strong  water — 
have  learnt  how  to  cheat — and  to  practice  all  the  vices  of 
the  white  men,  which  disgrace  Indians,  without  imitating 
the  virtues  of  the  white  men.  Brother,  if  you  are  our 
well  wisher,  keep  away  and  do  not  disturb  us. 

**  Brother — We  do  not  worship  the  Great  Spirit  as  tlie 
white  men  do,  but  we  believe  that  forms  of  worship  are 
indifferent  to  the  Great  Spirit — it  is  the  offering  of  a  sincere 
heart  that  pleases  him,  and  we  worship  him  in  this  man- 
ner. According  to  your  religion  we  must  believe  in  a  fa- 
ther and  a  son,  or  we  will  not  be  happy  hereafter.  We 
have  always  believed  in  a  father,  and  we  worship  him,  as 
we  were  taught  by  our  fathers.  Your  book  says  the  son 
was  sent  on  earth  by  the  father — did  all  the  people  who 
saw  the  son  believe  in  him  ?  No,  they  did  not,  and  the  con- 
sequences must  be  known  to  you,  if  you  have  read  the 
book. 

"  Brother — You  wish  us  to  change  our  religion  for 
yours — we  like  our  religion  and  do  not  want  another.  Our 
friends  (pointing  to  Mr.  Granger,  Mr.  Parish,  and  Mr. 
Taylor)  do  us  great  good — they  counsel  us  in  our  troubles 
— and  instruct  us  how  to  make  ourselves  comfortable* 
Our  friends  the  Quakers  do  more  than  this — they  give  us 
ploughs,  and  show  us  how  to  use  them.  They  tell  us  we 
are  accountable  beings,  bui  do  not  say  we  must  change 
our  religion.     We  are  satisfied  with  what  they  do. 

"  Brother — For  these  reasons  we  cannot  receive  your 
offers — we  have  other  things  to  do,  and  beg  you  to  make 
your  mind  easy,  and  not  trouble  us,  lest  our  heads  should 
be  too  much  loaded,  and  by  and  by  burst*" 

L  l2 


390  AMERICAN 


Speech  of  Red  Jacket, 

Jn  answer  to  a  Speech  of  Mr.  Richardson,  who  applied  to  buy  the  ^n- 
dian  rights  to  the  reservations  lying  in  the  territory  commonly  call- 
ed the  Holland  Purchase.  Delivered  at  a  Council  held  at  Buffalo 
Creek  in  May,  1811. 

"  Brother — We  opened  our  ears  to  the  talk  you  lately 
delivered  to  us,  at  our  Council  fire.  In  doing  important 
business  it  is  best  not  to  tell  long  stories,  but  to  come  to  it 
in  a  few  words.  We  therefore  shall  not  repeat  your  talk» 
which  is  fresh  in  our  minds.  We  have  well  considered  it, 
and  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  your  offers.  We 
request  your  attention  to  our  answer,  which  is  not  from 
the  speaker  alone,  but  from  all  the  Sachems  and  Chiefs 
now  around  our  Council  fire. 

<'  Brother — We  know  that  great  men  as  well  as  great 
nations,  having  different  interests  have  different  minds, 
and  do  not  see  the  same  subject  in  the  same  light — but  we 
hope  our  answer  will  be  agreeable  to  you  and  to  your  em- 
ployers. 

"  Brother — Your  application  for  the  purchase  of  our 
lands,  is  to  our  minds  very  extraordinary.  It  has  been  made 
in  a  crooked  manner — you  have  not  walked  in  the  straight 
path  pointed  out  by  the  great  Council  of  your  nation.  You 
have  no  writings  from  our  great  father  the  President. 

"  Brother — In  making  up  our  minds  we  have  looked 
back,  and  remembered  how  the  Yorkers  purchased  our 
lands  in  former  times.  They  bought  them  piece  after 
piece  for  a  little  money  paid  to  a  few  men  in  our  nation, 
and  not  to  all  our  brethren ;  our  planting  and  hunting 
grounds  have  become  very  small,  and  if  we  sell  these  we 
know  not  where  to  spread  our  blankets. 

"  Brother — You  tell  us  your  employers  have  purchased 
of  the  Council  of  Yorkers  a  right  to  buy  our  lands — we 
do  not  understand  how  this  can  be — the  lands  do  not  be- 
long to  the  Yorkers  j  they  are  ours,  and  were  given  to  us 
by  the  Great  Spirit. 

"  Brother — We  think  it  strange  that  you  should  jump 
over  the  lands  of  our  brethren  in  the  East,  to  come  to  our 
Council  fire  so  far  off,  to  get  our  lands.  When  we  sold 
our  lands  in  the  East  to  the  white  people  we  determined 


SPEAKER.  391 

never  to  sell  those  we  kept,  which  are  as  small  as  we  can 
live  comfortably  on. 

"  Brother — You  want  us  to  travel  with  you,  and  look 
for  other  lands.  If  we  should  sell  our  lands  and  move 
off  into  a  distant  country,  towards  the  setting  sun — we 
should  be  looked  upon  in  the  country  to  which  we  go  as 
foreigners  and  strangers,  and  be  despised  by  the  red  as 
well  as  the  white  men,  and  we  should  soon  be  surrounded 
by  the  white  men,  who  will  there  also  kill  our  game,  come 
upon  our  lands,  and  try  to  get  them  from  us. 

"  Brother — We  are  determined  not  to  sell  our  lands, 
but  to  continue  on  them — we  like  them — they  are  fruitful 
and  produce  us  corn  in  abundance,  for  the  support  of  our 
women  and  children,  and  grass  and  herbs  for  our  cattle. 

*<  Brother — At  the  treaties  held  for  the  purchase  of  our 
lands,  the  white  men  with  sweet  voices  and  smiling  faces 
told  us  they  loved  us,  and  that  they  would  not  cheat  us, 
but  that  the  king's  children  on  the  other  side  of  the  lake 
would  cheat  us.  When  we  go  on  the  other  side  of  the 
lake,  the  king's  children  tell  us  your  people  will  cheat  us, 
but  v/ith  sweet  voices  and  smiling  faces  assure  us  of  their 
love  and  that  they  will  not  cheat  us.  These  things  puzzle 
our  heads,  and  we  believe  that  the  Indians  must  take  care 
of  themselves,  and  not  trust  either  in  your  people  or  in 
the  king's  children. 

"  Brother — At  a  late  Council  we  requested  our  agents 
to  tell  you  that  we  would  not  sell  our  lands,  and  we  think 
you  have  not  spoken  to  our  agents,  or  they  would  have  in- 
formed you  so,  and  we  should  not  have  met  you  at  our 
Council  fire  at  this  time. 

"  Brother — The  white  people  buy  and  sell  false  rights 
to  our  lands  ;  your  employers  have  you  say  paid  a  great 
price  for  their  right — they  must  h.ive  plenty  of  money,  to 
spend  it  in  buying  false  rights  to  lands  belong  to  Indians 
— the  loss  of  it  will  not  hurt  them,  but  our  lands  are  of 
great  value  to  us,  and  we  wish  you  to  go  back  with  your 
talk  to  your  employers,  and  to  tell  them  and  the  Yorkers, 
that  they  have  no  right  to  buy  and  sell  false  rights  to  our 
lands. 

''  Brother — We  hope  you  clearly  understand  the  words 
we  have  spoken.     This  is  all  we  have  to  say." 


592  AMERICAN 


Speech  of  Red  Jacket. 

[The  occasion  of  the  following  speech,  was,  a  white  man  had  beea 
murdered  by  an  Indian  at  Buffalo,  and  the  Indians  were  unwilling  to 
deliver  the  perpetrator  of  the  crime  to  our  civil  authority.  Seve- 
ral meetings  were  held  between  them  and  the  people  of  Canandai- 
gua,  for  the  purpose  of  reconciling  them  to  the  propriety  and  just- 
ice of  surrendering  him,  to  which  however,  they  at  length  reluctant- 
ly consented.] 

"  Brothers — Open  your  ears,  and  give  your  attention. 
This  day  is  appointed  by  the  Great  Spirit  to  meet  our 
friends  at  this  place.  During  the  many  years  that  we  have 
lived  together  in  this  country,  good  will  and  harmony  have 
subsisted  among  us. 

"  Brothers — We  have  now  come  forward  upon  an  un- 
happy occasion  : — We  cannot  find  words  to  express  our 
feelings  upon  it.  One  of  our  people  has  murdered  one 
of  your  people  .  So  it  has  been  ordered  by  the  Great  Spi- 
rit who  controls  all  events.  This  has  been  done:  we  can- 
not now  help  it.  At  first  view,  it  would  seem  to  have  the 
effect  of  putting  an  end  to  our  friendship  ;  but  let  us  re- 
flect, and  put  our  minds  together.  Can't  we  point  out 
measures  whereby  our  peace  and  harmony  may  still  be 
preserved  ?  W^e  have  come  forward  to  this  place,  where 
we  have  always  had  a  Superintendant  and  Friend  to  re- 
ceive us,  and  to  make  known  to  him  such  grievances  as 
lay  upon  our  minds  ;  but  now  we  have  none  ;  and  we  have 
no  Guardian — no  Protector — no  one  is  now  authorised 
to  receive  us. 

"  Brothers — We  therefore  now  call  upon  you  to  take 
our  Speech  in  writing,  and  forward  our  ideas  to  the  Pre- 
sident of  the  United  States. 

"  Brothers — Let  us  look  back  to  our  former  situation. 
While  you  were  under  the  government  of  Great-Britain, 
Sir  William  Johnston  was  our  Superintendant,  appointed 
by  the  King.  He  had  powers  to  settle  offences  of  this 
kind  among  all  the  Indian  Nations,  without  adverting  to 
the  laws.  But  under  the  British  Government  you  were  un- 
easy— you  wanted  to  change  it  for  a  better.  General 
Washington  went  forward  as  your  leader.  From  his  ex- 
ertions you  gained  your  independence.     Immediately  ^f- 


SPEAKER.  593 

terwards,  a  treaty  was  made  between  the  United  States  and 
the  Six  Nations,  whereby  a  method  was  pointed  out  of  re- 
dressing such  an  accident  as  the  present.  Several  such 
accidents  did  happen,  where  we  were  the  sufferers.  We 
now  crave  the  same  privilege  in  making  restitution  to  you, 
that  you  adoptt^d  towards  us  in  a  similar  situation. 

"  Brothers — at  the  close  of  our  treaty  at  Philadelphia, 
General  Washington  told  us  that  we  had  formed  a  chain 
of  friendship  which  was  bright :  He  hoped  it  would  con- 
tinue so  on  our  part :  That  the  United  States  would  be 
equally  willing  to  brighten  it,  if  rusted  by  any  means.  A 
number  of  murders  have  been  committed  on  our  people — 
We  shall  only  mention  the  last  of  the  m.  About  two  years 
ago,  a  few  of  our  Warriors  were  amusing  themselves  in 
the  woods,  to  the  westward  of  Fort  Pitt :  Two  white  men, 
coolly  and  deliberately,  took  their  rifles,  travelled  nearly 
three  miles  to  our  encampment,  fired  upon  the  Indians, 
killed  two  men,  and  wounded  two  children.  We  then 
were  the  party  injured.  What  did  we  do  ?  We  flew  to 
the  treaty,  and  thereby  obtained  redress,  perfectly  satis- 
factory to  us,  and  we  hope  agreeable  to  you.  This  was  done 
a  short  time  before  President  Adams  went  out  of  oflice  : 
Complete  peace  and  harmony  was  restored.  We  now  want 
the  same  mtthod  of  redress  to  be  pursued. 

"  Brothers — How  did  the  present  accident  take  place? 
Did  our  warriors  go  from  home  cool  and  sober,  and  com- 
mit murder  on  you  ?  No.  Our  brother  was  in  liquor,  and 
a  quarrel  ensued,  in  whieh  the  unhappy  accident  happen- 
ed. We  would  not  excuse  him  on  account  of  his  being 
in  liquor  ;  but  such  a  thing  was  far  from  his  intention  in 
his  sober  moments.  We  are  all  extremely  grieved  at  it, 
and  are  willing  to  come  forward  and  have  it  settled,  as 
crimes  of  the  same  nature  have  been  heretofore  done. 

"  Brothers — Since  this  accident  has  taken  place,  we 
have  been  informed,  that  by  the  laws  of  this  state,  if  a 
murder  is  committed  within  it,  the  murderer  must  be  tried 
by  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  punished  with  death. 

"  Brothers — When  were  such  laws  explained  to  us  ? 
Did  we  ever  make  a  treaty  with  the  state  of  New- York, 
and  agree  to  conform  to  its  laws  i  No.  We  are  indepen- 
dent of  the  state  of  New-York. — It  was  the  will  of  the 
Great  Spirit  to  create  us  different  in  colour :  We  have 


594  AMERICAN 

different  laws,  habits  and  customs,  from  the  white  people. 
We  will  never  consent  that  the  government  of  this  state 
shall  try  our  brother.  We  appeal  to  the  government  of  the 
United  States. 

"  Brothers — Under  the  customs  and  habits  of  our  fore« 
fathers,  we  were  a  happy  people  ;  we  had  laws  of  our  own  ; 
they  were  dear  to  us.  The  whites  came  among  us  and 
introduced  their  customs  ;  they  introduced  liquor  among 
us,  which  our  forefathers  always  told  us  would  prove  our 
ruin. 

*•  Brothers — In  consequence  of  the  introduction  of  li- 
quor among  us,  numbers  of  our  people  were  killed.  A 
council  was  held  to  consider  of  a  remedy,  at  which  it  was 
agreed  by  us,  that  no  private  revenge  should  take  place 
for  any  such  murder — that  it  was  decreed  by  the  Great 
Spirit,  and  that  a  council  should  be  called,  to  consider  of 
redress  to  the  friends  of  the  deceased. 

"  Brothers — The  President  of  the  United  States  is  call- 
ed a  great  man,  possessing  great  power — he  may  do  what 
he  pleases — he  may  turn  men  out  of  office — men  who  held 
their  offices  long  before  he  held  his.  If  he  can  do  these 
things,  can  he  not  even  control  the  laws  of  this  state  ?  Can 
he  not  appoint  a  commissioner  to  come  forward  to  our 
country  and  settle  the  present  difference,  as  we,  on  our  part, 
have  heretofore  often  done  to  him,  upon  a  similar  occasion? 

'•  We  now  call  upon  you.  Brothers,  to  represent  these 
things  to  the  President,  and  we  trust  that  he  will  not  re- 
fuse our  request,  of  sending  a  commissioner  to  us,  with 
powers  to  settle  the  present  difference.  The  consequence 
of  a  refusal  may  be  serious.  We  are  determined  that  our 
brother  shall  not  be  tried  by  the  laws  of  the  state  of  New- 
York.  Their  laws  make  no  difference  between  a  crime 
-committed  in  liquor,  and  one  committed  coolly  and  deli- 
berately. Our  laws  are  different,  as  we  have  before  stated. 
If  tried  here,  our  brother  must  be  hanged.  We  cannot 
submit  to  that — Has  a  murder  been  committed  upon  our 
people,  when  was  it  punished  with  death  ? 

"  Brothers — We  have  now  finished  what  we  had  to  say 
on  the  subject  of  the  murder.  We  wish  to  address  you 
upon  another,  and  to  have  our  ideas  communicatee!  to  the 
President  upon  it  also. 


SPEAKER.  395 

^*  Brothers — It  was  understood  at  the  treaty  concluded 
by  Col.  Pickering  that  our  superintendant  should  reside  in 
the  town  of  Canandaigua,  and  for  very  good  reasons :  that 
situation  is  the  most  central  to  the  Six  Nations;  and  by  sub- 
sequent treaties  between  the  state  of  New- York  and  the 
Indians,  and  there  are  still  stronger  reasons  why  he  should 
reside  here,  principally  on  account  of  the  annuities  being 
stipulated  to  be  paid  to  our  superintendant  at  this  place. 
These  treaties  are  sacred.  If  their  superintendant  resides 
elsewhere,  the  state  may  object  to  sending  their  money  to 
him  at  a  greater  distance;  We  would  therefore  wish  our 
superintendant  to  reside  here  at  all  events. 

"  Brothers — With  regard  to  the  appointment  of  our 
present  superintendant,  we  look  upon  ourselves  as  much 
neglected  and  injured.  When  general  Chapin  and  captain 
Chapin  were  appointed,  our  wishes  were  consulted  upon 
the  occasion,  and  we  most  cordially  agreed  to  the  appoint- 
ments. Captain  Chapin  has  been  turned  out,  however, 
within  these  few  days.  We  do  not  understand  that  any 
neglect  of  duty  has  been  alleged  against  him.  We  are  told 
it  is  because  he  differs  from  the  President  in  his  sentiments 
on  government  matters.  He  has  also  been  perfectly  satis- 
factory to  us ;  and  had  we  known  of  the  intention,  we 
should  most  cordially  have  united  in  a  petition  to  the  Pre- 
sident to  continue  him  in  oiEce.  We  feel  ourselves  injur- 
ed— we  have  nobody  to  look  to — nobody  to  listen  to  our 
complaints — none  to  reconcile  any  differences  among  us. 
We  are  like  a  young  family  without  a  father. 

"  Brothers — we  cannot  conclude  without  again  urging 
you  to  make  known  all  these  our  sentiments  to  the  Presi- 
dont* 


THE  END, 


^ 


I'Vi 


